This archive report was first published on 8 October 2021.
On October 7, 2021, Godfrey Kangogo appeared before Justice Joel Ngugi at the Nakuru High Court. He is the main suspect in the murder of his lover, Irene Jepchumba, a former lecturer at the Rift Valley Institute of Science and Technology.
According to Pamela Rono, an investigator with the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI), her investigations only placed Kangogo as the last person to be with Jepchumba on the day of her death, July 6, 2018. However, Rono testified that none of her 23 witnesses saw Kangogo push Jepchumba into the water falls at Choka Falls on Molo River.
Initially, witnesses reported that Jepchumba had drowned, and her father had filed a report at the Menengai Police Station on July 7, 2018. However, a postmortem report by Dr. Titus Ngulungu, a pathologist at Rift Valley Provision General Hospital, revealed that Jepchumba died of strangulation.
Rono testified that it was only after the postmortem report that they formed an opinion that there was foul play and arrested Kangogo as the main suspect. The court also heard about 'threatening' messages allegedly sent to Jepchumba by Kangogo on July 4, 2018, two days before her death.
Lawyer David Mongeri cross-examined Rono on why the mobile phone number sent for forensic analysis on July 27, 2018, differed from the one received on September 5, 2018. Rono explained that there was a typing error in the report, but Mongeri wondered why she had not realized the error earlier.
The hearing will proceed on November 12, 2021, when a cybercrime expert will testify.
