A court has granted detectives 10 days to detain Shantel’s murder suspects, pending conclusion of investigations.
The two suspects were on Thursday arraigned in Kajiado law courts in connection to the kidnapping and murder of eight-year-old Shantel Nzembi.
Livingstone Makacha Otengo, 27, and Francis Mbuthia Mikuhu, 42, failed to take a plea after the prosecution filed an application seeking to detain the duo for 10 more days.
The suspects appeared before Kajiado resident magistrate Edwin Mulochi.
The court heard that Otengo, a boda boda operator within Kitengela town, was arrested at Orata area in Kitengela, Kajiado county, on Wednesday. He was allegedly in possession of a mobile phone believed to have been used to seek ransom from the deceased’s mother.
Mikuhu was according to the prosecution nabbed at around 9pm on the same day. He is suspected to have used his ID to register an Airtel number where the ransom was allegedly wired to.
Otengo and Mikuhu didn’t object to the prosecution’s request to have them detained further.
Mulochi directed that the suspects be detained at Kitengela police station where they were held before being produced in court.
Nzembi, who was a Grade 2 pupil, went missing on Saturday from her home in Ashut area in Kitengela.
Once a police report was filed and a search kicked off, the 8-year old’s body was found dumped at Orata, Noonkopir, on Monday.
Nzembi’s body, according to multiple sources, was inside a trench. It was wrapped in a light blue bed sheet with claims that she might have been defiled before being killed.
Prior to her disappearance, the deceased’s mother, Christine Ngina said that her daughter had gone outside to play with her friend, whom she identified as Sharon. She was last seen on Saturday at around 3pm.
Sleuths’ privy to the investigations said the deceased did not find her friend Sharon and instead went to play with other children.
Hours later, after her mother tried to look for her in vain, she received a phone call from an unknown person who told her that Shantel was in their custody.
“The female caller told me that she had my daughter. She kept on referring to me as mama Sharon though I told her my daughter was called Shantel. She said that if I wanted to see her alive, I should pay Sh300,000,” Ngina said.
