Kenya, March 4 -- A judge at the Naivasha High Court, Richard Mwongo, has found former United Nations (UN) worker Nicholas Koskei guilty of killing his wife, Rhoda Mumbi Mutua. This decision ended a long legal case that lasted eight years and faced many delays.
The court showed that Koskei tricked his wife into going to a hotel in Gilgil in 2017, pretending it was a romantic trip before he killed her in what was planned ahead of time.
On March 4, 2025, the judge announced the verdict, saying that the evidence against Koskei was very strong. The prosecution used testimonies from 17 witnesses, forensic reports, and other evidence that linked him to the murder.
The court has requested a report on Koskei's background before deciding on his sentence, which will happen on March 27, 2025.
On July 8, 2017, Rhoda Mumbi Mutua and her husband, Nicholas Koskei, went to Jacaranda Lake Elementaita Lodge in Gilgil, Nakuru County. They claimed they were going to celebrate Koskei's 36th birthday and fix problems in their marriage, but sadly, Mumbi was found dead later that night in the bathtub of their hotel room.
From the beginning, police thought her death was suspicious. Koskei claimed he left his wife in the bathroom while he went outside to make some phone calls. When he returned, he said the door was locked, so he asked the hotel staff for a master key. When he got into the room, he found Mumbi dead in the bathtub, with one leg hanging out.
Koskei said she drowned after taking sleeping pills. However, doctors found no drugs in her body and no sign that she drowned. Instead, they discovered injuries on her neck that suggested she was strangled and a head wound that showed she had struggled before dying.
Also, the bathroom floor was completely dry, which made it hard to believe the drowning story. Koskei was arrested and charged with murder, but he was released on a Ksh 300,000 bond and stayed out of jail for years due to many delays in the case. At one point, he pretended to be mentally unwell in jail, even saying repeatedly, "I killed my wife for love."
During the investigation, police found proof that Mumbi's murder was planned. Hotel records showed Koskei booked a room with a bathtub on July 5, 2017. Witnesses saw the couple at the pool before going to their room, and later, Koskei was seen outside acting strangely in the dark.
Investigators also found that days before the incident, Koskei was searching online for information about head and neck injuries, how to give drugs through veins, and drowning. Additionally, a police informant reported that Koskei tried to influence the postmortem report by asking a doctor for advice on how to do it.
Witnesses talked about the couple's troubled marriage. Friends and family said Koskei was unhappy and saw Mumbi as a financial burden. He was also mad that she wanted a divorce because of his cheating. Koskei's family didn't accept their marriage and refused to meet Mumbi's parents during their eight years together.
Mumbi's murder is part of a larger problem with violence against women in Kenya. The case faced many delays, which frustrated activists and Mumbi's family. It took two years before the trial even began.
The guilty verdict has brought relief to those who advocate for women's rights. Wanjeri Nderu, a human rights activist who followed this case closely, expressed her happiness, saying that Koskei's sentencing on March 27, 2025, should be serious because of the nature of the crime.
Published by HT Digital Content Services with permission from Bana Kenya.