Mother, son to remain in custody for 21 days as detectives probe Dr Mutiso murder

Rose Mbithe Mulwa and her son Chris Mulwa will be held separately, with the magistrate directing that Rose be remanded at Kileleshwa Police Station and Chris at Kilimani Police Station pending the completion of investigations.

The court held that the alleged threats made against Dr Mutiso before her death, taken together with the killing itself, provided a factual basis that could not be ignored in weighing the prosecution's application.

The magistrate ruled that the prosecution had established sufficient grounds to justify the continued detention, saying the remand orders were necessary to prevent actual interference with witnesses and to protect ongoing investigations.

The detention order falls short of the 30 days sought by the prosecution when the two were arraigned at the Milimani Law Courts, but grants investigators three more weeks to pursue the case.

The pair were arrested last Thursday in Karen in what detectives described as an intelligence-led operation. In an affidavit sworn by Corporal Romana Odour, investigators told the court that Dr Mutiso had reported two separate incidents in which men on a motorcycle allegedly trailed and threatened her before she was fatally shot.

According to the affidavit, Dr Mutiso was driving along Ngong Road near Junction Mall on July 7, 2026, when two men on a motorcycle allegedly drew a gun on her. She escaped unharmed and reported the incident at Kilimani Police Station, later telling investigators and her husband that she had identified the pillion passenger as Chris Mulwa.

The prosecution says Rose Mbithe Mulwa is the former wife of Dr Mutiso's husband, Prof David Musyimi Ndetei. The two divorced in 2001 after having four children together, among them Chris Mulwa.

Detectives have also widened the probe to establish whether Dr Mutiso's killing is connected to the murder of lawyer Mathew Kyalo Mbobu, who was shot dead along Magadi Road in September 2025. Mbobu had represented Prof Ndetei in a long-running property dispute with his former wife over matrimonial assets said to be worth billions of shillings.

Investigators are examining similarities between the two killings. Both victims were reportedly trailed before being gunned down, with Dr Mutiso shot while travelling in a taxi in Upper Hill on her way to work, nearly 11 months after Mbobu was killed.

Her death came 24 days after she reported receiving threats to her life at Kilimani Police Station. An autopsy by chief government pathologist Johansen Oduor found she had been shot three times, twice in the head and once in the upper body, with severe bleeding and chest and head injuries cited as the cause of death.