Detectives from the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) have arrested wanted fugitives after an expose by journalist Lynn Ngugi.
On Wednesday, March 30, the DCI confirmed they arrested Phylis Njeri, who is accused of torturing a 3-year-old boy to death. In the statement, the sleuths stated that they smoked her out of her hideout at Illasit village, close to the Kenya-Tanzanian border.
Njeri and her alleged accomplice were smoked out by detectives from the elite Crime Research & Intelligence Bureau (CRIB) backed by detectives from the Homicide branch and another elite unit based at DCI Nairobi regional headquarters.
Sleuths went after Njeri and Jackson Ngui after it emerged that they brutally assaulted and killed the minor in Nairobi. The two suspects are currently being transferred to Nairobi where they will face murder charges.
During an interview with Lynn Ngugi, the minor's mother stated that she left the 3-year-old and his 6-year-old brother under the care of Njeri when she left the country in November 2021 for Saudi Arabia.
"Barely four months after her departure, Njoki received the devastating news of her son’s brutal killing, triggering online outrage by Kenyans who called on the DCI to bring the suspect to justice.
"Sleuths based at the Corporate Communications and Public Affairs unit gathered information circulating on social networking platforms regarding the baby’s murder most foul and shared details of the incident to the elite teams," the DCI stated.
"Investigations were launched immediately, unearthing gory details of how angel David was brutally murdered by Njeri and her husband Jackson Ngui, while his horrified elder brother Peter Ndung’u watched in shock," the detectives added.
DCI stated that the joint team of detectives launched investigations into the incident and using cyber and digital forensics, to trace the suspects in their hideout as they planned to cross the Kenyan border to Tanzania.
Police also searched and collected evidence from the couple's house in Nairobi, where the minor's mother claimed the boy was killed. Detectives heard that the 3-year-old's brother was forced to clean the bloody floors.
"Forensic analysis conducted at the couple’s house in Kwa Maji area within Mowlem, in Kamukunji sub-county, revealed that the baby was killed in the house before his body was dumped at Mama Lucy Kibaki’s hospital mortuary," the DCI stated.
"The body had severe burns on both hands, legs and buttocks. It also had fresh injuries on the neck, the back and the face, signifying the amount of torture that the minor underwent, before his painful death," the sleuths noted.
"Meanwhile, detectives based at the DCI National Forensic Laboratory, biology division and their scenes of crime counterparts shall be visiting the couple’s house for further DNA analysis of the scene, to obtain more scientific evidence for a watertight case against the suspects."
