Warunge to answer to murder charges for killing family members today

By , K24 Digital
On Tue, 13 Apr, 2021 20:50 | < 1 min read
Lawrence Warunge
Lawrence Warunge (pictured) has been confirmed fit to stand trial for murder after undergoing treatment at the Mathari Mental Hospital. PHOTO | FILE
Lawrence Warunge (pictured) has been confirmed fit to stand trial for murder after undergoing treatment at the Mathari Mental Hospital. PHOTO | FILE

Self-confessed killer Lawrence Warunge, who shocked the country after killing four family members and a farmhand in Kiambu County in January 2021, is now expected to face murder charges on Wednesday, April 14.

The new development comes after a psychiatric report by Mathari Mental Hospital revealed that he is now mentally fit to stand trial.

Warunge was confirmed mentally fit after undergoing treatment at the medical facility since January.

Earlier when he had been presented before Kiambu Law Courts, the office of the Director of Public Prosecutions urged the suspect to be held in custody at Mathari Mental Hospital to enable him undergo treatment following an indication that he was mentally unstable.

The psychiatric test is mandatory for all High Courts handling murder cases in order to ensure a suspect has the capacity to plead to murder charges.

Warunge is now expected to face several murder charges over the killings of his father Nicholas Njenga Warunge, mother Annie and brothers Maxwell and Christian and their mason James Kinyanjui.

During his arrest and interrogation by police, the 22-year-old student made a confession that he chose to eliminate the four members of his nuclear family single-handedly because they were talking ill of him behind his back.

The Mt Kenya University student told officers 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 January 5.

It is said that Warunge was arrested in Kabete after being on the run for three days following the gruesome murder of his family.

READ MORE: How Lawrence Warunge planned gruesome murder of his family in Kiambu for 3 months