This archive report was first published on 24 October 2019.
On October 24, 2019, detectives in Embu County made a significant breakthrough in the murder case of Catholic Church cleric Fr. Michael Maingi, who was killed in October 2019. A 46-year-old suspect, Kavivya Mwangangi, was arrested in an intelligence-led operation in Kategi, Mbeere, Embu County.
According to a statement by the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI), the suspect will be detained as investigations into the gruesome murder continue. The DCI revealed that detectives are further investigating the possibility of the murder being connected to a cult, after a filled application form to join the Illuminati cult in September 2018 was recovered at Mwangangi's rented house.
Police also recovered various items from the suspect, including blood-stained clothes, a mobile phone, and a notebook bearing names and phone numbers of people suspected to be members of the Secret Society Cult. The items are believed to provide crucial leads vital for investigations into the murder of the priest.
Fr. Michael Maingi's body was discovered on October 15, 2019, almost a week after he was kidnapped from his Thatha Parish in Machakos County. The kidnappers slit his throat and cut his body before burying him in a shallow grave on a riverbed in Embu County.
Two of the four killers were arrested on Mombasa Highway in Makindu area with the priest's car and later took police to the place where they had buried the priest's body. Police are yet to know the motive of the killing and intend to exhume the body on Wednesday from the banks of Gathingiri river.
