Suspects in the murder of Machakos Catholic priest have failed to take plea after their lawyers claimed they have not been supplied with documents which prosecution intends to rely on.
Lawyer Guantai Kirimi, representing Michael Muthini and Kavivya Mwangangi, and lawyer Alphonce Mbindyo representing Solomon Mutava, objected plea taking by their clients on the ground that the prosecution had not supplied them with crucial documents.
They said the state had enough time of over one month to conclude investigations and supply them with the documents.
In her ruling, the Embu High Court Judge Justice Florence Musyemi directed the adjournment of plea taking to next week on Thursday, November 28 and directed state counsel, Ms Leah Mate, to supply the documents to the lawyers before plea taking date.
Muthini, Mwangangi and Mutava are alleged to have taken part in the murder of Father Michael Maingi Kyengo on October 7, this year.
The 43-year-old priest disappeared from his parent’s Tala home in Matungulu, Machakos County on October 5, and his body was recovered on October 16, from a shallow grave in a riverbed at Mbeere South, Embu County.
Muthini, who was arrested in Makindu town on October 11, by officers from the DCI while driving the slain priest’s car, had led the police to the house where Kyengo is believed to have died.
The suspect had directed the officers to where the body was recovered and from where they confirmed that Kyengo was killed inside a rented house belonging to the suspect.
Police recovered a knife from a pit latrine in the suspect’s home.
Arrest of the suspect consequently led to the arrest of his accomplices.
The cleric, who until his death was serving as an assistant priest in Thatha Parish, Machakos Diocese was buried on Monday at Katoloni Pastoral Centre, Machakos County.
