This archive report was first published on 12 May 2020.
On Sunday night, a 33-year-old aeronautical engineer, Edward Okello, was stabbed three times by his 29-year-old girlfriend, Vigilance Shighi, in Umoja Estate, Nairobi, leading to his death.
According to neighbours, Okello and Shighi had been fighting a lot in the weeks leading up to the incident, with their disagreements increasing in intensity.
Shighi, a regular visitor to Okello's apartment, was arrested and taken to the Buru Buru Police Station after neighbours identified her as the suspect.
Police officers who responded to the scene found Okello on the floor with three stab wounds on his chest and abdomen, inflicted with a knife.
Shighi was initially defensive, claiming she did not know what happened, but later maintained she had thrown a cup at Okello in self-defence.
However, in a video obtained by the police, Shighi is seen telling officers that she had been holding Okello and beating him up, and that she had thrown a cup at him in self-defence.
Shighi's defence was met with scepticism by the police, who pointed out that she had been drinking and should have told the truth.
Yesterday, at the Makadara Law Court, Shighi maintained her innocence, telling Senior Resident Magistrate Lewis Gatheru that she had only thrown a cup at Okello.
However, in an affidavit filed in court, the lead detective in the murder, Ms Veronicah Waithera, said that Shighi had a quarrel with Okello, prompting her to stab him with a kitchen knife.
The police have applied to hold Shighi for 21 days to record statements of all possible witnesses, take her for mental assessment, and await postmortem.
Additionally, the police have yet to take the murder weapon to the government chemist and phones belonging to Okello and Shighi for forensic examinations.
