Court to rule on bail terms of 4 charged with murder of activist Caroline Mwatha

A Nairobi court will on April 18, 2019 rule on bail/bond terms for four suspects accused of murdering Dandora activist Caroline Mwatha and her baby.

The accused have filed an application seeking to be released on the court’s terms after they denied two counts of murder before a Milimani court.

The four; Betty Akinyi Nyanya, Michael Onyonka Onchiri, Dale Richard Ramoya and Alexander Gitau Gikonya, are charged that on the nights of February 6 and February 7, 2019 at Dandora Phase IV within Nairobi county, they murdered Caroline Mwatha and her baby.

They pleaded not guilty to the charges before Justice Jessie Lessit after their medical reports indicated that they were fit to stand trial.

Ms. Mwatha was reported to have gone missing on Wednesday, February 6 with her disappearance being reported at Buru Buru Police Station on Friday, February 8, 2019.

Her body was found at the City Mortuary in Nairobi on February 12, 2019.

A post-mortem conducted on her body later revealed that she died due to excessive bleeding following a botched abortion exercise.

Addressing the media at Umash Funeral Home on February 14, Dr. Peter Ndegwa said Ms. Mwatha, a human rights defender, was “about 5 to 6 months pregnant with a male foetus.”

Her uterus was badly ruptured resulting to excessive bleeding, according to Dr. Ndegwa, who was representing the family.

“Unfortunately, I think somebody mistreated the foetus; it has no left upper limb, it has no brain because it has been sucked out, and there is a lot of blood in abdominal cavity. The foetus was actually in the abdominal cavity, it had come out of the uterus because the uterus had been perforated at the back and this led to bleeding,” said the doctor.

“We also found some needle puncture marks on the right cubital fossa meaning that there was some medical intervention somewhere; and we have taken some test specimen to see what kind of medicine was injected.”

The pathologist also stated that the deceased had no other physical injuries on the body besides the needle marks — ruling out any signs of struggle in the events leading to her death.