A 16-year-old is being held at Njoro police station as the prime suspect to the murder of 12-year-old Mercy Nyambura Mureithi whose body was found lifeless in a maize farm in Sinendet, Njoro.

In an interview Njoro Sub County Police Commander Stanley Keoch, notes that the culprit was arrested in Mau Narok where he had gone into hiding.

“We had been tracking the suspect's phone signal and were able to arrest him at his aunt’s place in Mau – Narok where he was seeking refuge. The suspect will be arraigned in court tomorrow under a miscellaneous application to allow us more time to conclude our investigations” Koech notes.

Koech notes that witnesses who saw him lurching around where the deceased was found have come forward and will be helping with investigations.

The grade six student at Sinendet Primary School left home for school on Monday morning but never made it back home.

Her body was later discovered with a maize farm with injuries to her head and visible marks of strangulations on her neck.

According to the deceased's aunt Susan Nyarwai, Nyambura’s dad came to her home at around 7pm to check whether his daughter was there.

Susan Nyarwai calls for justice for her 12 year old niece Mercy Nyambura Mureithi, who was found murdered in Njoro Monday 18, 2026.

Photo credit: PURITY kINUTHIA/ MTAA WANGU

“I told my brother it was too late for Nyambura not to have made it home. He asked me to check whether she was at her grandmother’s, which I did, but she was not there. Shocked, I took a torch and visited the village elder’s home to report the matter,” she explains.

At the village elder’s home, the chief said we should rest for the evening and have a photo of Nyambura taken to school and to the chief so that it could be shared on social media.

However, on Tuesday afternoon the search was cut short by screams from Maize farm by friends and family who were helping with Nyambura's search.

" We had screams from our neighbour who was helping with the search. There we found my niece's body laying lifeless with her school uniform still on,"she notes.

Residents now want increased police patrols to curb substance abuse in the area as more youths continue to abuse drugs in the community.

Bernard Kamau, a neighbor of the deceased, notes that alcohol and bhang being abused in the community have increased the crime rate and may be a contributing factor to the heinous acts upon Nyambura.

Bernard Kamau calls for police to curb substance abuse in Njoro as it has increased the crime rate in the area.

Photo credit: PURITY KINUTHIA/ MTAA WANGU

“We are calling upon the local authority to deal with drug abuse in Njoro. We want them to assure us that the girl will get justice lest we will take action in our own hands,” Kamau notes.

Nyambura’s family awaits a postmortem that will be conducted today to know the cause of death of their daughter.

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Suspect linked to the murder of 12-year-old grade six pupil to undergo age and mental assessment

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