A former United States International University-Africa (USIU-Africa) student has been sentenced to death for murdering his colleague in a kidnapping case involving a KSh100,000 ransom demand in 2012.
High Court Judge Kanyi Kimondo handed down the sentence against Duncan Livingstone Kimathi, 37, on Thursday, October 29, 2026, after finding him guilty of killing Sarah Akello Aruwa in Githunguri, Kiambu County.
Kimathi was convicted in September after the court found that he had lured Aruwa into a trap before abducting and killing her between June 30 and July 1, 2012.
Aruwa was a final-year International Relations student at USIU-Africa when she disappeared after leaving to meet a man she had previously encountered at the university library.
Her family later received calls demanding KSh100,000 for her release. Her mother, Hellen Atieno Aruwa, told the court that she negotiated the ransom down to KSh70,000 before reporting the matter to Kasarani Police Station.
The prosecution presented 17 witnesses during the trial, with evidence linking Kimathi to the abduction and murder.
In his judgment, Justice Kimondo found that Kimathi had used a false identity to lure Aruwa and that the killing was part of a plan involving abduction and ransom demands.
The court also heard that Aruwa’s body was discovered in a thicket in Kiambu County several days after her disappearance. A postmortem examination established that she died from manual strangulation.
Investigators recovered items belonging to Aruwa, including clothing, from a house in Savannah where Kimathi’s girlfriend, Winnie Wairimu Kariuki, lived. The evidence formed part of the prosecution’s case against Kimathi.
Kariuki was charged alongside Kimathi but later absconded after being released on bail, leading to the case proceeding against him separately.
The sentencing brings a new development in a case that has remained in the justice system for more than 14 years since Aruwa’s death.
