Julie Ward: Unsolved Murder Mystery Involving Jonathan Moi

In 1988, the late Jonathan Moi, who is former President Daniel Moi's son made headlines after he was linked in the murder of the late British tourist Julie Ward.

Appearing on Citizen TV in September 2018, 30 years after the heinous act occurred, Ward's father expressed disappointment in how slow the case progressed and that no one had been convicted following the murder that shook the country.

At the time, the information of the Moi's son involvement first originated from a Swiss TV crew before it spread to local headlines.

Ward, a young woman who had traveled into the country for a seven-month wildlife photography excursion, mysteriously disappeared in Kenya’s Masai Mara National Game Reserve.

It was, however, her father who was the first to sense her daughter's disappearance and took the plane to the Mara in search of her.

Her father recounted finding remains of her body: the jaw and the lower left leg, that had been burnt, deep in the bushes of Masai Mara.

The leg had also been chopped off by a blow from a panga or something sharp.

John Ward followed up the revelations with an article on the Nairobi Law Monthly, a Kenyan magazine, with a damning and sensational article alleging that Jonathan raped and murdered Julie Ward.

In an interview with Nation, John revealed that after Julie and her British boyfriend landed in the country, they stumbled upon Jonathan at a restaurant and that he fell in love with her.

He offered to take them to Masai Mara but the car broke down. The boyfriend then returned to Nairobi for spare parts but was reportedly ordered by Kenyan authorities to leave the country.

The move then angered Julie who picked a quarrel with Jonathan around the time she vanished. She later turned up dead.

Jonathan, however, refuted the claims explaining that "I am totally shocked to hear this. I had no relationship with the said lady (Julie) and I even didn't know her. I never did such a thing and it has never crossed my mind to do it."

Reports were also rife at the time that State House was an accomplice in the cover-up.

The Telegraph, A UK media outlet, in 2004, quoted Kiraitu Murungi, who was then Kenya's minister for justice, acknowledging that there was "prima facie evidence of deliberate obstruction" by officials to prevent the truth from coming out.

Kenya's government pathologists revealed that Ward had died from animal bites and that her body burns might have been as a result of lightning.

John visited the country more than 100 times trying to uncover the truth behind her daughter's murder but it bore no fruits. The only three people, including the then head of the Masai Mara, Simon Makala, who had earlier been arrested in connection with her disappearance were acquitted and no one has been convicted since.

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