Lawrence Warunge, the main suspect in the murder of his four family members and a worker at Karura area in Kiambaa, Kiambu County, has been charged with five counts of murder.
Appearing in a virtual court session before Lady justice Mary Kasango, Warunge was charged with killing his father Nicholas Warunge, mother Anne Warunge, brother Christian Njenga, nephew Maxwell Njenga and construction worker James Kinyanjui on the night of January 5-6, 2021.
He denied the charges.
The court directed that the suspect be remanded at Nairobi Industrial Area Prison pending the pre-trial hearing scheduled for May 11, 2021.
The 22-year-old suspect, who has been in police custody since he was arrested in January, was following confirmation that he is mentally stable and fit to stand trial.
Warunge’s girlfriend Sarah Muthoni, who was previously presented before court as the second accused, is expected to be a State witness in the case.
The court had on January 26, 2021 ruled that Lawrence was unfit to stand trial after a psychiatric report was presented at the Kiambu law court.
He told police officers that he got inspiration to commit the cold-blooded killings from ‘Killing Eve’ -a British dark thriller.
The 22-year-old university student confessed that he chose to eliminate the four members of his nuclear family because they were talking ill of him behind his back.
He told detectives that he had initially planned to kill everyone including his two surviving sisters who are in school, but his plans were foiled when the two returned to school on December 5.
