The man who is suspected of killing Multimedia University (MMU) student Sylvia Kemunto confiscated her mobile phone and offered it to a church in Nairobi as an offering.
Detectives pursuing the matter visited and recovered the mobile phone from Jesus is Alive Ministry church in the city.
This is after the suspect Philip Eric Mutinda told police he had offered the mobile phone to the church on Monday March 31 after the murder of the fellow student at college near Ongata Rongai.
He narrated to police saying he and the slain woman had been in a relationship but they had differences.
On the day of her death on March 30, he went to her room and tried to reconcile with Kemunto but she provoked him leading to a violent altercation.
It is alleged that Mutinda pushed Kemunto onto a wall and bed and strangled her with a rope from a hoodie.
She sustained head injuries from the hit on the wall.
He then bundled the lifeless body in a suitcase and transported it to his room.
He said he covered the body with a blanket, left for a walk, and returned approximately 40 minutes later.
That night, Mutinda moved the body back into the suitcase and slept. In the early morning of the March 31 around 4 am he reportedly transferred it to a tank where it was found.
He told police he then removed her SIM card from her phone, discarded it within the Multimedia University compound, but retained the phone.
He later visited a church, “Jesus is Alive Ministry,” and gave Kemunto’s phone as an offering.
Mutinda then traveled home before confessing to his family.
His parents escorted him to Sultan Hamud Police Station, where he surrendered.
An autopsy on the body suggested she was strangled.
She also had head injuries inflicted by a blunt object.
Chief government pathologist Dr Johansen Oduor and family one Dr Martha Mwangi said student also had defensive injuries indicating she tried to fight off her assailant.
“We saw injuries on the neck, which are typical of people who have been strangled. This indicates that the victim was deprived of oxygen at the time of death. Based on these findings, we concluded that the cause of Sylvia’s death was strangulation,” said Oduor.
The autopsy showed the body was decomposed when it was discovered on April 2 in a water tank at the college hostel.
The postmortem exercise was conducted at the Montezuma Funeral Home in Nairobi on April 8 and was attended by the police investigating the murder and the family.
Kibera Magistrate Zainab Abdul ruled Monday April 7 that Mutinda, be held at Capital hill until April 28 to allow the Director of Criminal Investigations (DCI) to complete his investigations.
The DCI through inspector Jairus Mutua moved to court under a miscellaneous application seeking to detain Mutinda, a Multimedia University student for 21 days pending investigations into the brutal murder of Kemunto, a first-year student whose body was discovered in a rooftop water reservoir at the university.
According to court documents, Kemunto had been reported missing on April 1 by her mother, Teresia Ayai.
Kemunto’s lifeless body was discovered on April 2 during a search conducted by the university’s security team atop Block B Hostel.
The suspect, reportedly Kemunto’s ex-boyfriend, had been last seen entering her hostel room on March 30 and later leaving with a suitcase that appeared heavily packed.
Police claimed that the two had reportedly been in a relationship since September 2024 but broke up in February.
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