The Office of the Director of Public Prosecution (ODPP) on Tuesday, March 2 announced that Charity Nyawira Muchiri who is the spouse of the late Daniel Mwangi would be released and all charges against her dropped.
Detectives had initially arrested Charity as a suspect as she was believed to have had an affair with her father-in-law. The love affair was linked to the death of the deceased.
However, the prosecution made the decision to drop her from the list of accused persons after further investigations found there was no evidence linking her to her husband's murder.
Stephen Wang’ondu, the deceased’s father, will remain in custody after taking a plea alongside James Mahinda Mwangi, Eddy Kariuki Ngari, Raphael Wachira Kariuki and Geoffery Warutumo Waturi. They all entered a no-guilty plea.
The father and the five suspects were arraigned before Principal Magistrate Mathias Okuche at the Nyeri High Court on Tuesday, March 2.
The five will be remanded for seven days and the bail ruling is set for March 9.
The DPP said that the prosecution had applied the evidentiary test where they reviewed the evidence and found it sufficient to convict the five suspects.
Wang’ondu is accused of contracting his driver to kill his son after falling out over the family business which is estimated to be worth over Ksh1 billion.
One of the contracted hitmen later confessed to police that the businessman was in love with his son’s wife, which contributed to the bad blood.
Police investigations have revealed that the hired hitmen killed Daniel by hacking him to death in Mweiga town, Nyeri.
The Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) revealed that on January 1, the body of the deceased was found lying in a pool of blood outside his home in Mwega town.
The DCI added that nothing had been stolen from him or his house.
“Nothing was stolen from him or his house, not even his Volkswagen Golf car beside which he lay lifeless,” the DCI said.
