A 19-year-old woman who was arrested during a shootout at her boyfriend’s house where officers sustained gunshot injuries knew he was a hardcore criminal behind several robberies in the city.
One officer was killed in the shootout while three others were injured.
A Makadara Court was on Wednesday told that Yvonne Muthoni,19, had been receiving money and airtime from his lover, Duncan Ochieng Ndinya, and his accomplices in order to conceal the offences.
Yvonne Muthoni who sat for the Kenya Certificate of Secondary Examinations (KCSE) last year has been dating Ndinya since 2020 when they met at bhang vendor’s den in Dandora, Nairobi during the Covid-19 lockdown.
The suspect is now being treated as an accomplice of Ndinya who was shot dead by detectives from the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) during the shootout inside his rented house in Kasarani, Nairobi on October 8.
Muthoni was on Wednesday charged with ‘compounding felonies’, contrary to Section 118 of the Penal Code. Under this section, it is an offence to receive any property or benefit upon agreement that he or she will compound or conceal a felony.
The office of Director of Public Prosecutions (ODPP) also charged Muthoni with consorting with a person in possession of a firearm, and cohabiting with Ndinya who was in possession of a Ceska pistol serial number F9665, which he used to kill Police Constable Andrew Nyakundi.
Ndinya also shot and seriously wounded Constable Nyakundi’s three colleagues from the DCI’s elite Operational Support Unit (OSU) including Sergeant Francis Singila, and Constables Joseph Karanja and Austin Nzioki Mutie.
Constable Nyakundi succumbed to injuries while undergoing treatment at the Nairobi West Hospital where his three colleagues are still hospitalized. He had been shot in the thigh and died on October 9 from the complications of ruptured nerves.
During the shootout where Ndinya was killed and the firearm recovered, his girlfriend and three children aged 11, 13 and six who were in the house escaped unharmed.
The officers were following Ndinya who was wanted for a series of robberies across the country, some of them reported in Nairobi, Kajiado, Migori and Embu counties.
Yvonne Muthoni on Wednesday denied the charges before Principal Magistrate Irene Gichobi of Makadara Law Courts and pleaded for lenient bail and bond terms through lawyer Veinna Mongare.
Corporal Christopher Njue of Kasarani DCI offices pleaded with the court to remand Muthoni at the Kasarani police station to help in investigations.
According to the detectives, Ndinya was using several firearms and only the Ceska pistol was recovered after he was killed.
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DCI believes he had multiple rental houses in Eastlands and Muthoni will be of help in identifying the houses for the DCI to recover the firearms.
Mongare however opposed the application and told the court that the suspect is two months pregnant and is traumatized by the fact that she witnessed the killing of her boyfriend.
Gichobi remanded the suspect at the Kasarani police station until October 17 and ordered for a prebail report.
The magistrate said the social inquiry report is necessary to inform the court’s decision on whether Ms Muthoni is suitable to be out there owing to the issues raised and circumstances around the case.
Detectives have further revealed that the firearm which was recovered had been stolen from Constable Job Koech, an Administration Police officer attached to Siaya Critical Infrastructure Police Unit (CIPU) on May 26 this year.
He had been issued with the firearm to guard the National Cereals and Produce Board (NCPB) Yala branch.
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