Two Nigerian nationals, William Ovie Opia and Johnbull Asbor, were arrested and arraigned in connection with the gruesome murder and dismemberment of 20-year-old Rita Waeni, a Jomo Kenyatta University and Technology (JKUAT) student in Kenya.
Rita Waeni’s mutilated body was found in an apartment in the Roysambu area of Nairobi on January 14, 2024, with her head missing. The body parts were discovered by the caretaker inside a trash bag in the apartment.
Police, after recovering a head suspected to be Rita’s from a dam in Kiambaa, Kiambu county on January 21, revealed that the suspects were living in Kenya illegally. Opia’s passport had expired, and Asbor did not have any travel documents.
The Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) found the suspects in a rented apartment in Ndenderu, Kiambu County, where they were picked up. Various items, including a hatchet, butcher’s knife, national identity card, six mobile phones, three laptops, 10 SIM cards, and more, were recovered from their residence.
Detective Constable Benjamin Wangila stated that the investigation team sought call data records for the recovered SIM cards and phones to determine if the suspects were involved in the murder. The suspects were deemed flight risks, lacking a fixed place of abode.
The court granted orders to hold the suspects for eight days at the Kasarani police station. Opia claimed to have bought a hatchet for self-defense from an online vendor.
Ultimately, the murder case indicated that Ms. Waeni was killed in a short-stay rental apartment.
The apartment owner, Priscila Maina, is also in custody for failing to register crucial tenant details.
Rita Waeni’s family was unable to identify her head at the City Mortuary. The head, found at a dam, was covered in a sack and wrapped in a purple blouse. A postmortem conducted on the body on Friday last week showed she had missing fingernails.
“This person who did all these also tried to clip off the fingernails for reasons which I might not be able to know but for us scientists when we see fingernails clipped off, we think probably the person was trying to hide evidence so that we are unable to get his DNA from the victim,” said government pathologist Johansen Oduor after the exercise.
On January 17, the family received a ransom message demanding Ksh. 500,000 for Rita’s release, adding another distressing dimension to the tragic incident.
