A university student linked to the murder of a fellow student at the Multimedia University (MMU) surrendered to authorities days after being on the run.
Police said the suspect, Philip Eric Mutinda, a first-year Electrical Engineering is also a student at the MMU.
Police said this could be a breakthrough in the murder of Sylvia Kemunto.
He surrendered at the Sultan Hamud police station and declared he was behind the murder of Sylvia Kemunto who was a first-year Mass Communications and Computer Science major.
Mutinda had been on the run since Monday when he is believed to have stashed Kemunto’s body in a water tank at the college hours after he killed her.
Nairobi police boss George Sedah said a team from Nairobi had traveled to Sultan Hamud to pick up the suspect for grilling.
He said they want to understand if he acted alone and what his motivation was.
A search for Kemunto who had been missing ended after her body was recovered from a water tank at the institution in Ongata Rongai.
Kemunto went missing on Sunday March 30.
Her decomposed body was discovered on Wednesday April 2, police and the institution said.
She had been strangled and hit by a blunt object and the motive is yet to be known, police said.
Police were looking for her boyfriend Mutinda, who is a prime suspect in the murder. He surrendered on Thursday night.
He was last seen with her and dragging a suitcase that is believed to have carried the body from the deceased’s room.
According to police, the search for Kemunto started on Sunday when her mother Triza Kwamboka, who lives in Kawangware in Nairobi failed to reach her.
She said she had sent her upkeep money through a church elder’s phone but when she tried to confirm whether her daughter had received the funds, her calls went unanswered. Sensing danger, Kemunto’s mother traveled to the university that day only to discover that her daughter was missing.
The school management confirmed her absence, prompting the mother to file a report at Langata Police Station.
The mother told police Kemunto had complained about a fellow student who was making advances to her but she was resistant.
The fellow student is the missing suspect Philip Eric Mutinda.
Police investigations show the student may have been killed in her room and the body later dragged to the rooftop of the hostel where the water tanks are and dumped there.
The killer then tied the tank with a wire and placed a stone there ostensibly to deter any detection. On the day Kemunto went missing, her roommate said she went to church and left her alone in the room.
That day, the said boyfriend visited her in the room at about lunch hour.
Witnesses told police they later saw the man drag a suitcase belonging to the deceased student from her room to his room in a different block.
It is suspected the suitcase contained the woman’s body. Later that night, the man’s roommate reportedly noticed the suitcase in their room, but it was missing the following morning.
The witness said he saw the suspect lie on the suitcase but did not understand what was the motivation.
The report of the student missing prompted police investigations which traced her phone signal within the university compound.
It was switched off but showed it was still within the compound near Ongata Rongai.
A foul smell emanated from the rooftop and when the search teams went there they discovered the body in the water tank.
The killer is believed to have been jinxed after the deceased woman declined his advances. He used a stone to conceal the water tank.
Kemunto’s mother Kwamboka said she told her about Mutinda’s advances and that she was resistant to the same.
The body was moved to the mortuary pending autopsy.
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