Cheryl Kitonga a name that has now on everyone’s mouth Thanks to her feature on KTN’s investigative piece Jicho Pevu into the murder of slain business person Jacob Juma. The lady kept anonymous in the released police report as the last person Jacob was last seen with, would later have her identity revealed on national TV.
The move to show her face as expected drew fierce criticism mostly from the growing number of feminists with many lashing at the Jicho Pevu’s host Moha for not respecting the lady’s privacy rights by going ahead to reveal her face.
From an investigative angle, Cheryl being the last person Jacob was seen with before his bullet-riddled body would later be found just a few hours after the two had departed each other, makes her an outstanding person of interest.
Controversies surround circumstances under how and where the two left each other. Cheryl on a recorded phone call says Jacob dropped him off at Trattoria restaurant in CBD, and the intriguing part is, regardless of having about ten cameras roaming the area, no CCTV footage could be retrieved from this field putting into many questions what transpired there.
Without CCTV footage owing to nonfunctional cameras as DCI Muhoro told journalists to mean that only Juma and Cheryl, who knew where he went next after dropping her and whom he met. Jacob’s next steps after Trattoria if at all he got there since no proof would be where his killers trapped him.
From the circumstances, several observations have strengthened the theory that Jacob was kidnapped, tortured to death and body planted at the scene.
On a speculative angle, could it have been possible that Cheryl saw the killers or the people that took him away? Inconsistencies between Cheryl testimony and police report raises more than enough questions.
Cheryl Kitonga according to police report together with Jacob Juma left his Brookside Apartment at 7.45pm she says he dropped her at Trattoria at 7.50pm that’s five minutes from Westlands to town and that she was home in South B at 8.12PM that’s 22minutes.
Many people have dismissed the possibility of this happening, given the nature of Nairobi jams and being a Thursday a busy day and peak hours and worse still the rainy day that it was nearly impossible to cut through the traffic in such short times.
Moreover, According to Brookside Penthouse gate records, Jacob Juma and Cheryl left the apartment at 7.45pm, Police report say at 7.34pm was driving along Waiyaki Way begging the question who was lying the police or the gatekeepers records.
With these glaring loopholes and inconsistent chronology, the young lady being the one last seen with Juma is a primary person of interest in the case.
From the call recording that was made by Juma’s taxi driver, Cheryl can be heard in a shaky terrified voice. Could it be possible that the lady saw the people who took Juma away and threatened her against ever talking to anyone about what she witnessed or she was just terrified for this secret of the cross-generational affair with Juma being exposed to the media? How? Didn’t she know the call was being recorded and would end up in the press?
There’s a general belief amongst investigative journalist’s I’ve conversed with that the young lady would’ve knowingly or unknowingly led Jacob to his killers a theory that is yet to be proven but one thing for sure is the girl is the last person Juma was seen with.
In a confession made to Jicho Pevu investigating hit squads time back, one of the elite hit men confessed that at times they use females or close persons to the target in luring them into their trap before they take them out. While this couldn’t be the case in JJ case, possibilities can’t be out ruled.
In the instance Cheryl saw something or someone taking away Jacob or meeting with, making her a resourceful person in identifying the killers, puts her life in danger, these people wouldn’t at all want to leave any traces to them.
They then would try by all means find this lady and shut her mouth and what another sure way than killing her before she reveals anything to anyone.
The fact that in the police report she was put anonymous would be advantageous to the killers in the sense that they would quickly take her out without being linked to JJ murder after all nobody in the public would know of her link to Jacob.
By making her face public, Jicho Pevu saved Cheryl’s life in that it scared away the killers or any person of interest from reaching her. The choice was turf, but had to be made, she was to undergo psychological torture, but that’s not a big price to pay for your life. Cheryl will perhaps one day live to appreciate this, or maybe she already does.
