Murder Suspect Lawrence Warunge Declared Unfit to Stand Trial

Lawrence Warunge, a 22-year-old student who confessed he killed five people including four members of his family has been declared unfit to stand trial.

Kiambu law courts Magistrate, Patricia Gichohi made the ruling on Tuesday following a mental assessment test carried out on the suspect.

The court ordered that the suspect be remanded for 30 more days to undergo further mental assessment.

Warunge’s girlfriend, Sarah Muthoni was freed by the court after the prosecution revealed intentions to use her as a state witness in the murder case.

Warunge, a student at Mt. Kenya University, is accused of killing his father Nicholas Njoroge, mother Ann Wanjiku, his brother Christian Njenga, cousin Maxwell Njenga, and the family’s farmhand James Kinyanjui. 

The five were brutally murdered on the night of January 5th, 2021 in Karura village, Kiambaa, Kiambu County.

Following his arrest, Warunge led police to Mai Mahiu where he had disposed of the murder weapons and the clothes he wore during the massacre.

Warunge, who is the eldest son of Njoroge, told detectives that he researched on the internet the best way to eliminate his victims, adding that he was motivated by Villanelle, a psychopathic killer in the British show, “Killing Eve”.

Chief Government Pathologist Johansen Oduor, who conducted a postmortem on the deceased said, chances are very high that the four family members were murdered by one attacker. 

The postmortem examination further revealed that the knife used in the macabre killings had similar dimensions.

“All of them died because of multiple injuries which are caused by blunt and penetrating trauma and also a significant loss of blood,” said Oduor.

Njoroge, a US-based nurse who had returned to the country last month to spend Christmas with his family, and his son Christian suffered the most injuries.

The four family members were laid to rest in their Karura home on January 16th.