This archive report was first published on 11 January 2020.
On January 11, 2020, Major Peter Mugure, a Kenya Air Force soldier, appeared at the High Court in Nyeri to face murder charges.
He is accused of killing his 31-year-old wife, Joyce Syombua, and their two children, Shanice Maua, 10, and Prince Michael, 5, in Nanyuki Town two months prior.
When the charges were read to him, Mugure expressed concerns about taking a plea, citing several issues he wanted to raise first.
Justice Jairus Ngaah entered a plea of not guilty on behalf of the accused and directed the prosecution to provide all documentary evidence it intended to rely on.
The court also set January 23 for a pretrial conference to determine a hearing date.
The murder victims were last seen on October 25, 2019, when they traveled from Nairobi to Nanyuki to visit Mugure at the army barracks.
Their bodies were later found buried in a shallow grave in a public cemetery on the outskirts of Nanyuki Town on November 16, 2019, after the suspect led the police to the site.
