By Andrew Kariuki
The Kibera High Court was engulfed in grief and silence on Monday as Teresiah Kemunto, the mother of slain Multimedia University student Sylvia Kemunto, took the witness stand and emotionally recounted the painful journey that ended with her daughter’s death.
Struggling to hold herself together, Teresiah wept openly as she narrated the moments that followed Sylvia’s disappearance.
Her testimony was repeatedly interrupted by tears, forcing the court to pause several times.
Presiding judge Diana Kavedza gently asked her to slow down, breathe and take brief breaks whenever she became overwhelmed.
She told the court that before Sylvia went missing, she had received phone calls from a man who was identified as Eric Mutinda, the accused in the case.
According to Teresiah, Sylvia immediately recognised the caller as someone who had allegedly been troubling her and whose number she had blocked earlier.
The grieving mother testified that Mutinda had previously taken Sylvia’s mobile phone, an incident that deeply distressed her daughter.
She said the university did not act promptly after Sylvia reported the matter, forcing her to personally intervene.
“I had to call the school myself,” Teresiah told the court, explaining that the phone was only returned after the accused was summoned.
When Sylvia later failed to return home, Teresiah said fear set in.
She stated that she tried to call her daughter but her phone went silent even after being answered several times.
She began calling her daughter’s friends and university contacts, desperately trying to locate her.
When her efforts failed, she reported the disappearance at Lang’ata Police Station.
She recalled that detectives later went to the university to investigate and that shortly after being questioned about Sylvia’s whereabouts, Mutinda allegedly fled, a development she said immediately raised suspicion.
Teresiah further testified that Sylvia’s hostel room appeared disturbed, prompting officers from the Criminal Investigations Department to search multiple hostels within the campus.
Despite tracking information suggesting Sylvia was still within the university grounds, she remained missing.
The courtroom fell into stunned silence as Teresiah described receiving a phone call on a Thursday evening informing her that her daughter had been found dead.
“I went to the City Mortuary,” she said through tears. “Her body was swollen and unrecognizable, I was only able to know its her when I saw marks on her fingers I recognized nailpolish that I saw her with before she disappeared.”
She told the court she identified Sylvia by her distinctive nail polish, a moment she described as devastating beyond words.
Represented by family lawyer Danstan Omari, Teresiah also spoke about raising Sylvia as a single parent and making sacrifices to ensure she received an education and a good life.
She said Sylvia had scored an A-minus in KCSE and dreamed of studying medicine, but financial challenges forced her to settle for computer science at Multimedia University of Kenya.
“She wanted to be a doctor, but I could not afford it,” she said, adding that friends later helped raise funds for Sylvia’s university education.
She even stated that the alleged green suitcase she was found in was a gift to her from her highschool principal.
During cross-examination, Teresiah maintained that Sylvia had rejected Mutinda’s advances and said she was unaware of any romantic relationship between them.
Sylvia’s body was later recovered from a water tank on the rooftop of a hostel building within the university.
Mutinda has denied the murder charge.
The trial is next scheduled for 16th March 2026, with more witnesses expected as the prosecution continues to present its case.
