MP quizzed over death of varsity student

 

By BENEDICT TIROP, tiropbenedict@yahoo.com, and ZADDOCK ANGIRA, zangira@ke.nationmedia.com
Posted  Saturday, June 25 2011 at 22:30

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Police have interrogated an MP from Central Kenya and his two bodyguards over the mysterious death of a university student in Nairobi after a violent altercation.

Mercy Chepkosgei Keino’s promising future was cut short in the upmarket Westlands area of Nairobi where she had attended a private party on Friday June 17, 2011. The party ended prematurely for her after a disagreement with the MP.

Ms Keino had planned to complete a master’s degree in communications at the University of Nairobi School of Journalism and marry her fiancé Ronny Kemboi, an employee of the Kenya Revenue Authority, in December.

But her dreams were shattered after disagreements with the MP at an apartment complex on Church Road to which she had been invited by friends.

Accounts given to the police in witness statements indicate that Ms Keino left the party after a heated exchange with the flamboyant MP, sources familiar with the investigations told the Sunday Nation.

Gigiri police boss Joseck Nasio confirmed that the MP had recorded a statement with the CID at Parklands Police Station.

In the statement, the MP admitted he was at the party where Ms Keino allegedly got intoxicated and caused chaos, and they quarrelled before his guards intervened.

The accounts recorded by the police show that Ms Keino was escorted out of the plush apartment complex by the MP’s bodyguards. When she stepped outside, the student sat on the stairs at the entrance to the complex.

When the night guard asked the bodyguards what was going on he was informed that the woman was waiting for a taxi.

But he did not see any taxi arrive and Ms Keino left on foot with the bodyguards, walking towards Waiyaki Way.

Her friends at the party told the police they did not know what had happened to Ms Keino until the following day in the afternoon.

By then, Ms Keino was hours dead. Her body was recovered in the wee hours of Saturday on Waiyaki Way where, police say, several motorists had run over it.

Police initially thought the death had been caused by a hit-and-run driver but were taken aback when they did not see much blood at the scene. It was not clear where Ms Keino was coming from at that time of the night.

Police later linked the death with a separate report filed by a witness who had reported seeing occupants of a dark Mercedes Benz car drop off a body on the highway.

On Saturday, police confirmed that some witnesses had given them details of the vehicle, and they had established the name of the registered owner but were yet to talk to him.

A medical student at the University of Nairobi who was at the party told the police that she saw Ms Keino running towards Waiyaki Way followed by the MP’s guards but only learnt of her death the following day at around 1 p.m.

Ms Keino’s family and Belgut MP Charles Keter have called for through investigations into her death. At the funeral in Belgut on Friday, her parents urged the police to investigate the death conclusively.

During an emotional send-off at her home, her father, Mr Joseph Keino, told mourners that the death of his first-born daughter was shrouded in mystery.

“We are not satisfied with the story we are being told about the death of child ... we urge the police to conduct further investigations to unearth what really happened,” he told the mourners.

The father said his daughter last talked to him about her wedding preparations. They also discussed the progress of her graduate studies.
“She had introduced me to Ronny, and I gave her my blessings to marry him. I saw that the young man was a good man,” he said in a voice full of emotion.

At the University of Nairobi Ms Keino was known as social and principled person.

According to a classmate who spoke to the Sunday Nation yesterday, her engagement and impending wedding were known by friends and classmates in campus. “When she was not with her family, she would be with her boyfriend,” the classmate said.

Mr Keter, the local MP, urged the police to conclude investigations into grey areas touching on the death but said he was so far satisfied with the pace of investigations.

“So far the police, especially the Criminal Investigations Department in Gigiri, have been cooperative and helpful, but we still urge them to investigate the remaining areas of this tragic incident,” he said.

The legislator said that police should establish how Ms Keino left the apartment and who accompanied her because the body was found about three kilometres away from the party venue.

“The police should unearth how the body could be found so far away from where the deceased and her friends were having their outing,” he said.
He was optimistic that the truth would be uncovered soon.

Azaria Soi, a relative of Ms Keino, said the family was suspicious about the circumstances surrounding the death and urged “deeper investigations”.
He questioned why the friends who went out with the deceased that night waited 12 hours before reporting her disappearance to the police.

Never reported

“We wonder why her friend or friends, who they went out with together, never reported to the police until after 12 hours had elapsed. The whole story is fishy,” Mr Soi said.

Ms Keino’s death announcement on Wednesday indicated that she died on the morning of Saturday, June 18, 2011 in a “suspicious tragic road accident” on Waiyaki Way, Nairobi.

Mr Kemboi, to whom she became engaged on April 25, vowed to get to the bottom of the death mystery. He told the mourners that they had “planned our future, but God had other plans. But I will look for answers to the death of Mercy.”

Mrs Winnie Keter said the death needed further investigation.

“There are many grey areas in the death of Mercy which we urge the police to investigate fully,” she said.

The gathering was told that doctors had to reconstruct her face, which was badly mutilated when her body was run over.