The murder trial of John Matara, accused of killing socialite Starlet Wahu in January 2024, advanced on Wednesday as the Director of Public Prosecutions presented four additional witnesses at the High Court in Milimani.
The testimonies offered new insights into the events surrounding Wahu’s death and the investigation that followed.
On Wednesday, the prosecution called four witnesses: clinical officer Isaiah Olang, police forensic video analyst Elizabeth Njuguna, and two security guards, Joseph Ndungi and George Gitau. Prosecutors Della Wilbey, Sarah Ogweno, and Peris Maina led the witnesses in presenting their chief evidence.
Clinical officer Olang testified about treating a male patient around 11pm on the night of the murder. He identified the patient in court as Matara and said he had two stab wounds; one on the right thigh and another on the right hand, and appeared intoxicated.
Olang and three other medical staff provided first aid, administered painkillers, and later issued a referral letter to Mbagathi Hospital for further treatment.
The accused spent less than two hours at South B Hospital, according to the clinician.
Police constable Njuguna recounted her analysis of CCTV footage provided by the Directorate of Criminal Investigations.
She reviewed nine video clips and produced 23 still photographs, showing a man in a black cap, bluish long-sleeved shirt, brown trousers, and carrying a red bag entering the apartment with a woman on the evening of January 3, 2024.
Later, at 10.09pm, the man was seen alone with a white cloth around his neck and a suspected bloodstain on his leg as he moved through the building. The footage showed him leaving the apartment at 10.11pm, though his face was not clearly visible.
The man was wearing a black cap, a bluish long-sleeved shirt, brown trousers, and was carrying a red bag.The final witnesses, security guards Ndungi and Gitau, described discovering the crime scene. Ndungi noticed a suspicious man leaving the apartment, wearing a blue T-shirt, white towel, and khaki trousers with visible stains on his legs.
Following a trail of blood to the fourth floor, they found the locked apartment door and alerted the owner, who used a spare key to enter.
Inside, Wahu’s naked body was lying on the floor with bloodstains and visible neck injuries. Ndungi identified the man in the footage as the accused, and Gitau corroborated the sequence of events.
The hearing is set to continue on Thursday, 2 October 2025, with three more witnesses expected to testify.
Matara faces charges over the brutal murder of Wahu on the night of January 3, 2024, at an apartment in South B, Nairobi. Her body was discovered the next morning in a short-term rental, hours after she was seen entering the building with the suspect.
A postmortem report revealed she had been strangled and suffered a deep cut on her thigh that severed a vein. Matara was later arrested while receiving treatment at a city hospital, following CCTV footage that identified him as the key suspect.