A son to a couple who were brutally murdered together with three others in Karura area, Kiambu county, Kenya, has confessed to the crime.
The 22-year-old university IT student identified as Lawrence Simon Warunge, was arrested on Friday, January 8, after he went missing following the gruesome murder of his parents, brother, his cousin and a mason at their Karura home in Kiambu County on Tuesday night.
Police said they arrested Lawrence as a prime suspect into the incident after a three-day manhunt.
After he was arrested, he later confessed to the incident and led police to a residence in Mai Mahiu area on Saturday where they recovered the murder weapon, a kitchen knife, clothes, shoes and a piece of paper.
He had thrown the exhibits to a pit latrine. Police dug the wall of the latrine and used ropes to recover the exhibits from the 20-feet deep pit.
He also took police to an open field in the same area where he said he burnt some of the evidence.
Lawrence claims he killed the five alone but police said they are open to a possibility there were other players.
The most chilling part is where Lawrence said he caught up with his father, Nicholas Njenga Warunge as he escaped from him after he broke one of his legs after jumping off a balcony.
“He says the father was hit by an electric cable as he ran away and jumped off the balcony and was indisposed further after he fractured a leg. This gave him time to catch up with him and he killed him like a snake,” said an officer who had heard the confession.
Lawrence’s girlfriend who lived in the house in Mai Mahiu is also being held for interrogation.
Lawrence said after he murdered the five using a kitchen knife at about 8 pm he jumped onto a motorcycle and rode up to the nearby Wangige shopping centre where he took a public service vehicle to Mai Mahiu while carrying the killer weapon and other recovered evidence.
The bodaboda rider is yet to be found for questioning.
In his chilling confession, he said on arrival at Mai Mahiu, he went to an open field in the area where he burnt some of them on Tuesday, January 5 at about 11 pm.
Detectives from the Homicide Unit visited the site and collected the debris for analysis. The officers and the suspect donned white surgery clothes as they visited the scenes where he disposed of the exhibits.
Lawrence told police that his parents were “satanic and killers” hence deserved to die.
Lawrence is a university student in the city and was initially thought to have gone to school.
His mobile phone signal was traced to Mai Mahiu, Naivasha. It was later traced to Thika and later to Kabete area on Friday.
Police said the suspect went to a relative’s home in Ngongoro area to seek refuge there before they were alerted Friday night. He was later arrested when he told police his parents were “satanic and cruel”.
Police had thought at least five people were involved in the murder of Nicholas Njoroge Warunge, his wife Annie, sons Christian and Maxwell and a construction worker James Kinyanjui.
Their badly mutilated bodies were found in their Kiambaa home on Tuesday and Wednesday.
It is believed a dispute over property was the motive of the murder.
The bodies were moved to the mortuary where a post-mortem is expected on Monday.
Nothing was stolen from the compound during the incident.
Warunge had arrived in Kenya from the USA where he worked as a nurse for Christmas holidays about 11 days before his murder.
His two elder daughters survived the cold blood murder because they had the previous day gone to school. Neighbours said they are in secondary school.
Annie who worked with Kiambu County Government as a psychologist nurse and two of their children were found murdered and the bodies lying in the compound.
Lawrence told police he made his way into the house through the rear door, where he found his mother Annie, and hacked her to death before slitting her throat.
The commotion in the kitchen drew the attention of the second victim, his 13-year-old cousin, Maxwell Njenga, who he confronted along the corridor and cut in the head and throat. Maxwell had just turned 13 on December 26, 2020.
His blood brother Christian Njenga was killed as well and his throat slit on his bed.
He claimed his father Warunge was in the master bedroom upstairs at the time of the attack. He rushed to the balcony on sensing danger and jumped down where he broke his leg but he caught up with him and stabbed him 34 times before slitting his throat at near the gate and left for the dead.
Also killed in the same style was the mason, James Kinyanjui who was in the home at the time of the attack. Lawrence claims he killed them all.
Kiambu police boss Ali Nuno said they will also revisit past unsolved murder incidents that happened in the family and are probably related to the latest murder. Last Tuesday’s incident was the fifth in the family according to Nuno.
He said the first victim was killed in 2016 when one Allan Warunge, a brother to Njoroge was killed.
He was shot for the first time and confined on a wheelchair before his assailants pursued him later.
“There was an incident which involved Alan Njire Waruinge in 2016 who was a victim after being shot twice after being confined on a wheelchair. And there was Kenneth Mungai Waruinge who was assassinated alongside with his niece thereafter,” said Nuno.
“Kinyanjui Kamau, a family member was also killed in unclear circumstances.”
