The High Court has sentenced 37-year-old Duncan Livingstone Kimathi, a former USIU student, to death for the murder of his fellow student Sarah Akello Aruwa.
Justice Kanyi Kimondo delivered the ruling following a lengthy trial in which the prosecution successfully established that Kimathi participated in the abduction, ransom extortion, and subsequent killing of the final-year International Relations student.
According to an official press statement issued by the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (ODPP) on Thursday, October 29, 2026, the prosecution secured the ultimate penalty after presenting overwhelming forensic and witness evidence.
“The Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) has today secured a death sentence against Duncan Livingstone Kimathi, a former student of the United States International University-Africa (USIU-Africa), for the murder of his fellow student, Sarah Akello Aruwa,” confirmed the ODPP.
Court records show that the murder occurred between June 30 and July 1, 2012, in the Kiamako area of Githunguri, Kiambu County, shortly after the victim left campus to meet a man she encountered at the university library.
Prosecution counsel Millicent Kigira called 17 witnesses to trace the sequence of events leading from the deceased’s disappearance to the recovery of her body and the tracking of ransom calls made to her family.
Also Read
Crisis in ODM: Winnie Odinga, Jalang’o Battle for ODM Ticket
President Ruto Pledges Ksh 10m to a Day School Following Top Performance in the National Exams
Public University Lecturers Defy CS Ogamba’s Return-to-Work Order
Testifying before the court, the victim’s mother, Hellen Atieno Aruwa, confirmed receiving extortion calls demanding Ksh 100,000 before she reported the missing person case at Kasarani Police Station.
The court established that Kimathi used a fake identity of Daniel Muriithi that was recorded in Akello’s notebook to lure her into a trap before demanding ransom from her family.
Forensic investigations subsequently led officers to a house in Savannah occupied by Kimathi’s girlfriend, Wairimu, where detectives recovered Akello’s blood-stained top, bra, and panties.
A postmortem examination confirmed that Akello died from neck compression through manual strangulation, having sustained severe skull lacerations and neck bruising.
In his final judgment, Justice Kanyi Kimondo held that the circumstances surrounding the abduction and subsequent killing clearly established malice aforethought.
“The court found that Kimathi had acted with malice aforethought, noting that the deceased had been deliberately lured into a trap for abduction and ransom before being murdered,” Justice Kimondo noted.
