Cash for kill? Sister ‘named as mastermind’ in pension murder plot”
Chilling new details have emerged in the murder trial of Agnes Katengeza, after police told the High Court that a painstaking trail of stolen electronic devices — including her iPhone — ultimately led investigators to her own family.
Detective Sub-Inspector Penjani Ng’ambi told the court in Lilongwe how officers used the International Mobile Equipment Identity (IMEI) number of Agnes’s stolen iPhone, taken from her bedroom, to track the device all the way to Blantyre.
There, the person found in possession of the phone told police he had purchased it from Amos Katengeza — the first accused in the shocking murder case.
Investigators then discovered that Amos himself was also in Blantyre, and had been in contact with a technician tasked with updating the operating system on an iPhone 13.
“It turns out that iPhone 13 is one of the items which went missing from Agnes Katengeza murder scene,” Ng’ambi revealed to the stunned courtroom.
Police swiftly tracked Amos down in Blantyre and arrested him, discovering an iPad and an HP laptop stashed in a bag he was carrying at the time.
Ng’ambi, testifying as the fourth witness in the case, follows earlier evidence from Rosabel Mwakifwamba, who had received parcels in Blantyre on Amos’s behalf via courier, and computer technician Joseph Saiti.
But it was the detective’s most explosive claims that sent shockwaves through the courtroom — alleging that Amos had implicated his own sister, Egnat, in planning their relative’s brutal murder.
According to Ng’ambi’s chilling testimony before Justice Bruno Kalemba, Amos was questioned back in September 2023 and insisted he could never have killed Agnes simply over stolen gadgets — before allegedly claiming the murder had in fact been carefully planned together with Egnat.
Crucially, Egnat was listed as the sole beneficiary of Agnes’s pension fund held at the Reserve Bank of Malawi — a chilling detail investigators say pointed to a clear financial motive behind the killing.
Acting on Amos’s alleged information, police cautioned Egnat and obtained official RBM documents confirming her status as the nominated pension beneficiary.
Both siblings were later brought in for questioning, though Amos ultimately chose to exercise his right to remain silent. The pair now stand jointly charged with murder.
In another dramatic twist, the court heard that investigators had desperately tried to retrieve WhatsApp messages from Agnes’s phone — but were only able to recover conversations dating from 2019 to 2023, with a suspicious gap covering the crucial June to September 2023 period conspicuously missing.
Justice Kalemba has since adjourned proceedings until this afternoon, when Ng’ambi is expected to continue his gripping testimony.
The State is being led by Director of Criminal Litigation in the Directorate of Public Prosecutions, Dzikondianthu Malunda, as the shocking case continues to unfold before the High Court.
