The trial of Citizen TV journalist Jackie Maribe and her ex-fiancé Joseph Irungu in a case in which they are charged with the murder of businesswoman Monica Kimani kicked off on Tuesday in which part of the defense strategy emerged.
Irungu, commonly referred to as Jowie, started by challenging whether Kimani was in fact murdered by presenting alternative theories on the deceased’s death.
The former security guard, through lawyer Hassan Nandwa, argued that since a postmortem carried out on Monica’s body result did not record whether or not there was food in her stomach; it was possible that she may have died of starvation.
Nandwa was challenging a pathologist, Dr David Ndegwa, who had been brought in as an expert witness to explain how the deceased was killed at her apartment at Lamuria Gardens, near State House.
“Did you open her esophagus to ascertain the food Monica took that day? Did you open her stomach? Could we suggest that the cause of her death was as a result of because there was no food in the stomach?” Jowie’s lawyer asked, further suggesting that the body cuts may have been done after Ms Kimani had already died.
The pathologist told the court that it was not possible for a dead body to bleed, insisting that the sharp body cuts led to the businesswoman’s death.
“There was bleeding, a dead body does not bleed. She had a visibly slit throat and blood oozing from her nose,” Ndegwa testified.
Earlier on, the Prosecution, through State Counsel Catherine Mwaniki, had emotionally narrated Ms Kimani life story, drawing protest from Maribe’s lawyer Katwa Kigen.
Justice James Wakiaga
Kigen unsuccessfully sought to convince Justice James Wakiaga that the state did not need to give a vivid description of the deceased as the matter before the court was on whether the two accused had actually committed the crime of murder.
In her statement, Mwaniki told the court that they had evidence that showed that Monica was left in Jowie’s custody and later found dead in a bath tub.
“We will prove there was cover up by Jacque and Jowie. We will prove that the two accused can be deemed as primary offenders. We will at the end show that both accused persons are guilty of Murder,” the prosecutor said.
The trial resumed tomorrow with more witnesses expected to take the stand from 11am.