A police officer and a woman believed to be his girlfriend were found dead in a suspected murder-suicide in Mwala Sub-county, Machakos County.
The bodies of 40-year-old Police Constable Jeminsta Mutua, based at Nyakianga Police Station, and Joyce Kaswii Muange, 40, were discovered Wednesday after the officer’s mother raised alarm.
Ms Esther Kaloki had gone to check on her son when she was met with a foul smell emanating from the officer’s house that had been locked from the inside.
She reported to Makutano Sub-location chief Simon Kiminza, who then alerted police. The officers broke into the house, found the two bodies and recovered a suicide note supposedly written by the Constable.
They also found two empty bottles with a sticker written “horticulture poison”, a panga and a rope.
“The body of Joyce Muange appeared strangled while the mouth of the deceased officer had some foam,” a police statement read in part.
The bodies were moved to Machakos Level Five Hospital awaiting a postmortem examination.
The two, who are said to have been embroiled in an unending dispute, were last seen together in public on Sunday, March 15.
“Mutua had come home after he was suspended from work on disciplinary grounds,” said Kiminza.
“On Sunday, he and his lover were seen together at Makutano Market. The following day, which was a Monday, it was only Mutua who was seen in public, and he appeared psychologically disturbed. It is most likely he had killed the woman he was cohabiting with on Sunday.
“No one suspected he had committed any crime until Wednesday, when Mutua’s mother went to knock on his door after she failed to see him for over two days. It was then that his body and that of the woman he was cohabiting with were found,” the chief added.
“The woman’s body had bruises in the face and cut wounds in other parts of her body.”
Kiminza said the suicide note directed that all the property the officer had be inherited by his two children and that his father should be the next of kin to benefit from any monies that the National Police Service will give to his family following his death.
