The Chief Magistrate’s Court at Milimani Friday granted the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) 15 days to continue detaining four suspects linked to the murder of Nairobi lawyer Mathew Kyalo Mbobu, pending investigations.
Chief Magistrate Gethi Kibiru ordered the four suspects Julias Cheruiyot, Nicholas Naula Lemiso, Noah Kipkurui Langat and Kennedy Kipkemei will be held at Gigiri, Parklands, Kibra and Muthangari police stations respectively.
Mbobu, a city lawyer and partner at Kyalo and Associates in Nairobi’s Central Business District, was gunned down on the evening of September 9, 2025, while driving his white Toyota Land Cruiser near Brookhouse International School in Lang’ata.
Investigators said he was ambushed by armed assailants riding on a motorcycle, who opened fire before fleeing the scene.
Police officers who processed the scene recovered bullet fragments and other ballistic exhibits, while a subsequent search of the lawyer’s vehicle yielded a spent cartridge, bullet heads and additional fragments that were submitted to the government ballistic laboratory for forensic examination.
An autopsy conducted by Chief Government Pathologist Dr Johansen Oduor concluded that Mbobu died from multiple gunshot injuries after sustaining eight bullet wounds to the upper body and neck.
Two bullet heads recovered during the postmortem were also forwarded for ballistic analysis.
According to an affidavit sworn by Homicide Investigations Bureau officer Inspector Patrick Wachira, detectives reconstructed the lawyer’s final movements using CCTV footage and call data records.
The investigation further established that Mbobu was representing the family of Professor David Musyimi Ndetei in a land dispute pending before the Machakos Environment and Land Court, a matter investigators believe may have provided the motive for the killing.
Detectives told Chief Magistrate Kibiru that ballistic analysis linked cartridge cases and recovered bullets to a CZ 85B pistol, which had allegedly been issued to the first suspect Cheruiyot, a police officer attached to Pangani Police Station.
The DCI alleged that Cheruiyot fired the fatal shots after being transported to the scene on a motorcycle ridden by Lemiso.
Langat is accused of trailing the lawyer’s vehicle from his office, while Kipkemei allegedly participated in planning meetings alongside the other suspects and an alleged financier identified as Rose Mbithe who is the former wife of Ndetei.
The four suspects were arrested on September 24, during what detectives described as an intelligence-led operation.
Police recovered a firearm, mobile phones, two motorcycles and other items that are yet to undergo forensic examination.
The DCI had sought to detain the suspects for 30 days, arguing that they posed a flight risk, could interfere with witnesses, collude with accomplices still at large and compromise ongoing intelligence-led investigations.
Investigators also cited public interest and concerns for the suspects’ safety because of widespread outrage over the lawyer’s murder.
“The investigations remain active and intelligence-led, with several investigative leads yet to be pursued,” read the court documents.
The matter will be mentioned on October 9, 2026.
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