Jennifer Wambua, a veteran journalist and Deputy Director in charge of Communications with the National Land Commission (NLC), who went missing on Friday shortly after checking in and out of the office, was found dead on Monday, after her body was discovered at Ngong Forest and later taken to the Nairobi City Mortuary.
Kilimani DCIO, Fatima Hadi has confirmed this, after her body was positively identified by her husband Joseph Komu.
NLC acting chief executive, Ms. Kabale Tache Arero, and NLC chairperson, Gershom Otachi, were present at City Mortuary after news broke of discovery of her body today.
According to the acting NLC boss, Mrs. Wambua had asked for some time off since Monday last week, saying she felt depressed.
“She came to see me in the office on Monday March 8. She narrated how she had an accident the previous weekend and even showed me photographs of her damaged car,” Ms. Arero said, adding she approved and granted her five days leave to “cool off.”
Mrs. Wambua failed to return home from work on Friday and had not been traced as of Sunday evening, leaving the husband distraught.
Foul Play Suspected
With investigations still at the preliminary stages, there is a heightened sense of foul play since she was a State witness who was supposed to be cross-examined in a multi-million shilling corruption case.
Family lawyer Daniel Maanzo says Jennifer was a key State witness in several corruption cases, and was due to testify in one of them tomorrow.
How, why and who abducted and killed her, point to foul play, leaving the family seeking for answers.
CCTV Footage
Mrs. Wambua, a former Bureau Chief with the Kenya News Agency (KNA), who worked as Deputy Director in charge of Communications with the National Land Commission (NLC), went missing after she left the office on Friday, shortly after being seen checking into the office, according to CCTV surveillance footage.
Detectives from the Kenya Police, visited the Commissions offices to retrieve and analyze footage, to track her movements from the time she was dropped of by her husband to when she left the office.
Her husband, Joseph Komu, who filed a missing person report at Capitol Hill Police Station, said he found her handbag in their car, which they drove to work on the day she disappeared.
CCTV footage show that she did report to her office which is on the fourth flow at ACK Annex, which is adjacent to Ardhi House, but was seen leaving, an hour later. Camera’s captured her entry and exit, where she is evidently seen carrying her handbag which her husband later recognized.
“She was alone,” according to a detective who reviewed the footage.
The husband became suspicious after his wife failed to show at home after three straight days causing anxiety in the family.
“It appears she was either kidnapped at the parking lot after she opened the car and put the handbag containing her mobile phone, or she willingly dropped the items in the car and left,” the distraught husband told a local newspaper over the phone.
Mr. Komu was Sunday questioned by detectives at the DCI headquarters and recorded a statement with the team tracing the journalist’s whereabouts. The couple resided in Machakos town; she leaves behind three children.
– This is a developing story.
Discussion about this post