The High Court has found former Kenya Defence Forces (KDF) Major Peter Mwaura Mugure guilty of murdering his former partner, Joyce Syombua, and their two young children in a case that shocked the country and exposed a carefully planned crime.
Born in 1985 and raised in Nairobi’s Kayole estate, Mugure excelled academically, earning an A- in the Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education before graduating with a Civil Engineering degree from the University of Nairobi. After struggling to secure employment in his field, he joined the military and rose to the rank of Major in the Kenya Air Force, serving at Laikipia Air Base in Nanyuki.
The case stemmed from a long-running dispute over child support after a court-ordered DNA test confirmed Mugure was the biological father of Syombua’s two children. Although ordered to pay monthly maintenance, prosecutors said he complied for only a short period and became increasingly resentful of the financial obligation.
In October 2019, Mugure invited Syombua and the children to Nanyuki, claiming he wanted to celebrate their daughter’s birthday. According to evidence presented in court, he separated the children from their mother, killed them in a vacant military house, then lured Syombua away before later killing her. With the help of a casual worker, he transported the bodies and buried them in a shallow grave outside the military base.
Investigators dismantled Mugure’s alibi using mobile phone forensic evidence, witness testimony and information from the casual worker, who later confessed and led detectives to the burial site. The discovery of the three bodies led to Mugure’s arrest and prosecution.
Throughout the trial, Mugure denied the charges and unsuccessfully sought bail several times. On July 10, 2026, the High Court convicted him on three counts of murder after the prosecution proved the killings were premeditated, including evidence that he had arranged for a grave to be dug days before the victims travelled to Nanyuki. The court concluded that the prosecution had established his guilt beyond reasonable doubt.