Police Trace Main Suspect In Lilian Waithera Murder To Murang'a

A man has been arrested in connection to the mysterious murder of National Health Insurance Fund (NHIF) employee Lilian Waithera.

Reports reaching Viral Tea's newsdesk indicated that the man was nabbed after he was traced to Kenol in Murang'a County, where he has been for the past week. Nairobi Regional Police Commander Adamson Bungei confirmed the suspect's name as Julius Kimani Mwangi.

Police sources revealed to the media that the firearm believed to have been used in the assassination at the Nairobi Central Business District (CBD) was recovered by detectives from the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI).

The man had revealed to the police he was in the CBD on the fateful day and was also carrying his gun but did not fire. The police suspected that the man accidentally fired his weapon, leading to the fatal bullet striking Waithera in the neck.

Portrait photo of the late Lilian Waithera. /KELXFY

The DCI officers had also pinned the man to the building where the shot that killed Waithera was fired from.

They are waiting for ballistic examination results to establish whether the firearm recovered from the suspect is a match to the bullet that was recovered in Waithera's body.

The suspect was transported to the DCI headquarters along Kiambu Road and interrogated by a team of detectives handling the case.

The detectives are also seeking to establish the motive behind Waithera's demise after police ruled out assassination claims.

Waithera had collapsed and died as she was walking home in the company of her colleagues on the fateful day from the Upperhill area.

Bungei threw a major twist after he disclosed that autopsy results showed that the bullet was found in her lungs, despite eyewitnesses reporting not hearing a gunshot in the affected area in the city.

CCTV footage showed Waithera, dressed in a black sweater, walking alongside her colleague Damaris Achieng' as they passed a bank along Kaunda Street in Nairobi Central Business District (CBD) at 5.12 pm.

Moments later, the duo cross to the other side of the street, but Waithera is startled as she walked past an eyeglasses shop, as is Achieng' and they remain standing momentarily.

Waithera is then pulled to the roadside where she collapses at the parking zone designated for a local insurance company between two vehicles.

While the NHIF employee was shot, other Nairobi residents along the street were seen continuing with their businesses, unaware of the happenings and evident enough that no sound of a gunshot was heard.

"A lady came to our door and said that someone had been shot and that we should call an ambulance for her. We all panicked and ran outside to see what happened and we found a lady that had collapsed outside our door and she was bleeding from her mouth and nose," a shopkeeper on the street stated.

A short while after, a crowd mills around the scene and for more than 20 minutes, frantic calls were made to get an ambulance, which arrived at the scene slightly more than 25 minutes later.

It had spent the next 11 minutes at the scene before it rushed Waithera to the hospital where she was pronounced dead on arrival. 

"Her chest was facing downwards until paramedics came and turned her over while they were trying to give her first aid so that's when we saw blood. We did not actually see it on her clothes, she was just bleeding from her nose and mouth so we didn't quite know what the problem was," added the witness.

DCI officers pinpointed the Jubilee Insurance Centre building as the likely spot used by the mysterious sniper to gun Waithera down, with reports indicating that detectives obtained the records of those who accessed the building on that day and recorded statements from security guards of nearby buildings.

Waithera’s husband Paul Mbogo said his wife was an open book and ruled out reports that she was a whistleblower in a Ksh1 billion corruption scandal.

Jubilee Insurance building in Nairobi CBD. /FILE