Justice Kanyi Kimondo sentenced 37‑year‑old Duncan Livingstone Kimathi to death after finding him guilty of murdering Sarah Akello Aruwa between 30 June and 1 July 2012 in Kiamako, Githunguri, Kiambu County.

The Director of Public Prosecutions secured the conviction, noting that the case involved abduction and a Ksh100,000 ransom demand made to the victim’s family.

During the trial the prosecution called 17 witnesses to establish the circumstances of Akello’s disappearance, the ransom negotiations and her eventual murder.

Evidence showed that Kimathi and accomplices lured Akello into a trap, abducted her and demanded money from her family, using a mobile phone call to negotiate the ransom down to Ksh70,000 before the matter was reported to Kasarani Police.

Akello, a final‑year International Relations student, had told a friend she was meeting a man she had previously encountered at the university library, and later recorded a contact named Daniel Muriithi in her notebook, a name later used by the accused to lure her.

Investigators recovered Akello’s bra, panties and a blood‑stained top from a house in Savannah where Kimathi’s girlfriend, identified as Wairimu, lived, supporting the prosecution’s case.

A post‑mortem examination found a laceration at the back of Akello’s head, bruises on her neck and concluded she died from manual strangulation caused by neck compression.

Justice Kimondo concluded that Kimathi acted with malice aforethought, deliberately luring, abducting, holding for ransom and then killing Akello, leading to a conviction under Sections 203 and 204 of the Penal Code.

The second accused, released on bail, later absconded; the court ordered the trial to continue in her absence.