Sh100,000 ransom trap: Ex-USIU student sentenced to death for killing final-year colleague
Dancun Livingstone Kimanthi at Milimani Law Courts where he was charged with murdering Sarah Akello Aruwa in 2012.
Photo credit: File | Nation
Correspondent
Nation Media Group
A former United States International University-Africa (USIU-Africa) student has been sentenced to death for murdering his colleague after luring her into a trap, abducting her and demanding a Sh100,000 ransom from her family.
High Court Judge Kanyi Kimondo on Thursday sentenced Duncan Livingstone Kimathi, 37, after finding him guilty of murdering Sarah Akello Aruwa, who was a final-year International Relations student, in June 2012.
The court found that Kimathi had deliberately lured Ms Akello into a trap before she was abducted and later strangled, with the prosecution presenting direct, circumstantial, electronic and documentary evidence linking him to the crime.
Serah Aruwa, a final year student at USIU, was kidnapped by her college mate and her body found in a thicket five days later. PHOTO/COURTESY
The Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP), through prosecutor Millicent Kigira, called 17 witnesses to prove the case, which centred on the victim’s disappearance, ransom demands made to her family and the subsequent discovery of her body in Ngewa, Githunguri, Kiambu County.
In his judgment, Justice Kimondo said the evidence left no doubt about Kimathi’s involvement in the abduction and killing.
“From what I have stated in the preceding paragraphs coupled with the electronic and call data evidence, I am fully satisfied that the accused was positively identified as the person who lured and abducted the deceased on 30/6/2012, demanded a ransom, issued threats to kill the deceased in default of payment and that he, together with other persons not before the court, strangled the deceased to death,” Justice Kimondo said.
The judge dismissed Kimathi’s defence, finding that his account, including his alibi, was inconsistent with the evidence presented by the prosecution.
The court held that Ms Akello died as a direct consequence of his unlawful actions and that the “entire corpus of direct, circumstantial, electronic and documentary evidence points irresistibly to his guilt”.
The court heard that Ms Akello disappeared on June 30, 2012, after telling her friend, Ivy Gathu, that she was going to meet a man she had previously encountered at the university library.
Before leaving, she had written in her notebook that she intended to meet a man identified as Daniel Mureithi and recorded a mobile phone number that was not registered.
Justice Kimondo found that the name was part of a plan to conceal the identity of the person who had arranged to meet her.
“It would then be foolhardy to expect him to provide his true bona fides to the deceased. But technology has a way to catch up with people. I deduce that he exchanged his telephone contacts with the deceased which she wrote down in the notebook,” the judge said.
The court further found that Kimathi had access to the USIU-Africa campus and an opportunity to lure the deceased, despite his denial that he had been a student at the institution.
“To start with, the accused had access to the USIU campus and an opportunity to lure the deceased into his trap. Furthermore, the deceased was living off-campus in a one-bedroom unit only five minutes away from USIU,” the judge said.
Electronic evidence and the timeline of events led the court to conclude that the unregistered telephone line used to communicate with the deceased was being operated by Kimathi or his accomplices.
Ms Akello’s mother, Hellen Atieno Aruwa, testified that she received a call from a man using her daughter’s mobile phone who demanded Sh100,000 for her release and threatened to kill her if the money was not paid.
The caller made further demands the following day, when Ms Aruwa was with a relative, Jim Onyango. The family eventually negotiated the ransom down to Sh70,000.
The deceased’s boyfriend also told the court that when he tried calling her phone, a man answered and demanded that Sh100,000 be sent to her mobile money account.
The family’s efforts to secure Ms Akello’s release were followed by the discovery of her body in a thicket in Ngewa, Githunguri, days after she disappeared.
A postmortem examination established that she had sustained a laceration at the back of her head and bruises on her neck. The medical examination determined that she died from neck compression through manual strangulation.
Investigations also led to the recovery of the deceased’s bra, panties and a blood-stained top from a house in Savannah where Kimathi’s girlfriend, Winnie Wairimu Kariuki, lived.
Winnie Wairimu Kariuki and Dancun Livingstone Kimathi at Milimani Law Courts in February 2014 when they were charged that between June 30, 2012 and July 1, 2012, at Kiamiako Area, Githunguri, Kiambu County they murdered Sarah Akello Aruwa.
Photo credit: File | Nation
Ms Kariuki, who was the second accused in the case, absconded after being released on bail. Efforts to trace and arrest her have been unsuccessful, and the court directed that the trial proceed in her absence.
During cross-examination, Kimathi admitted that he had previously been charged and convicted in a Makadara court for abducting a girl in 2012.
The High Court found that the prosecution had established the elements of murder, including malice aforethought, and convicted him under Section 203 as read with Section 204 of the Penal Code.
The case, which dates back to 2012, has now culminated in Kimathi’s death sentence, while the search for his co-accused continues.
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