The High Court in Nairobi will on Friday deliver it’s judgment in the murder case against Joshua Irungu alias Jowie and former TV news anchor Jacqueline Maribe.
The two ex-lovers were in 2018 charged with the murder of businesswoman Monica Kimani who was found dead with her throat slit at her Nairobi home in Kilimani estate.
The verdict was to be delivered on October 6th but was postponed after Lady Justice Grace Nzioka was reported to be ill.
Monica’s body was found at her Lamuria Gardens Apartment on Kitale Lane off Denis Pritt Road in Kilimani.
The prosecution called 35 witnesses who testified against the two.
Although they have denied knowing Monica or being involved in her death, assistant DPP Gikui Gichuki has said the evidence they presented in court is sufficient to have them convicted.
“My lady the death was unlawful as indicated by all the prosecution witnesses. As per witness testimony, the first accused was placed in the house of the deceased, he was positively identified during the identification parade” Gikui said.
Gikui at the tail end of the case said the two had a common intention and ‘acted in concert to eliminate the deceased’
She relied on a court of appeal judgement that held that aiding and abetting generally means somehow to assist in the commission of a crime or to be an accomplice.
Regarding the second accused person, Jackie Maribe, the prosecution submitted that she was at that time the partner of the first accused and were living together.
Gikui added that Maribe was the owner of the vehicle used in a criminal enterprise.
“She also allowed the gun to be kept in her house yet she had a young child. It should be noted in testimony produced in this court that she lied to the police consistently regarding how the first accused person was injured,” the DPP said.
However, Maribe’s lawyer, Katwa Kigen, has argued that none of the witnesses had incriminated the former news anchor in the murder.
“The case is based on circumstantial evidence; there’s no direct evidence against the second accused person,” Maribe’s lawyer said.
He also said there was no DNA evidence linking Maribe to Monica’s murder.
