Missing Senior Govt Official Found Murdered

An image of the Directorate of Criminal Investigation(DCI) headquarters in Kiambu Road, Nairobi
A file image of the Directorate of Criminal Investigation (DCI) headquarters in Kiambu Road, Nairobi
File

UPDATE: A senior government official who had been reported missing has been found dead.

Police reports indicate that Jennifer Itumbi Wambua’s body was found at the City Mortuary.

Kilimani DCI boss Fatuma Hadi said that her body was collected from the Ngong area on Saturday, March 13.


A senior government official who is also a veteran journalist formerly based in Machakos has gone missing.

Jennifer Itumbi Wambua was last seen on Friday, March 12 after her husband dropped her at work.

Wambua, who is currently working as the deputy director for communications at the National Land Commission, did not return home from work on Friday.

She is a former Machakos Bureau Chief of the Kenya News Agency (KNA).

Jennifer Itumbi Wambua who went missing on Friday, march 12 2021.
Jennifer Itumbi Wambua who went missing on Friday, March 12 2021.
Daily Nation

Her family said that by Sunday, March 14 evening, her whereabouts were unknown.

According to her husband, Joseph Komu, he found her handbag and phone in the family car several hours later after dropping her off to work at the Commission’s offices. 

Her husband works with the Ministry of Agriculture at Kilimo House which is within a walking distance from where Wambua works.

After dropping his wife at work, Komu says he parked the car in a yard which they can both reach easily. 

The husband noted that it appeared she came back to the car and might have dropped her handbag which contained her mobile phone but he cannot say what might have happened thereafter.

“I picked the car at around 11 am and went to the garage where I discovered my wife’s handbag and her phone. After the car was fixed, I drove to her office to drop the items but was shocked when her colleagues told me she had not been seen that day,” said the devastated husband.

Komu says he drove back to NLC offices and reported the matter at Capitol Hill Police Station after Wambua failed to show up on Friday evening. 

Detectives have since visited the NLC’s offices and retrieved CCTV footage to assist in tracing her movement. 

The detective's report so far indicates that she indeed reported to her fourth-floor office at ACK Annex adjacent to Ardhi House but was seen walking out about an hour later.

The CCTV further revealed that she was seen with her handbag when getting into the building and later on as she exited.

 “Already, detectives have retrieved CCTV footage at her place of work and preliminary investigations show that she entered her fourth-floor office and later left carrying her handbag, an hour later,” Komu told Nation.

The detectives could not tell how her phone was found in her husband's car and she left it there herself or someone did.

“It appears she was either kidnapped at the parking lot after she opened the car and put the handbag containing her mobile phone, or she willingly dropped the items in the car and left,” her spouse added.

The husband was on Sunday 14 questioned by DCI detectives at their headquarters and recorded a statement which he hopes could help in finding the veteran journalist.

DCI detectives are still investigating the matter to determine what might have happened.

Director of Criminal Investigations George Kinoti addresses the media on Thursday, March 5, 2020.
Director of Criminal Investigations George Kinoti addresses the media on Thursday, March 5, 2020.
Simon Kiragu
Kenyans.co.ke
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