A man and his estranged wife were yesterday found hanging from ropes in their one-roomed house in Githurai 44, Nairobi.
Shocked neighbours said even though the couple had been experiencing domestic problems, they did not expect their differences to end in deaths.
They described the early morning incident as ‘unexpected’ considering the couple had two young children.
Neighbours said they found the two bodies dangling by ropes tightly tied around their necks. The ropes had been fastened to the window grilles.
Kiambu OCPD Duncan Ngutu said preliminary investigations had shown 38-year-old Simon Maina may have killed his estranged wife Esther Muthoni,41, before taking his own life in what he may have planned to pass off as double suicide.
However, in a suicide note found in the house, the two said they should be buried together. The note also indicated the two wanted their parents to take care of their two children.
The children were however not home at the time of the incident. Neighbours said the children were at their grandparents’ home in Nyeri County.
NO COMMOTION
A woman, said to be Muthoni’s niece, and with whom Muthoni operated a second-hand clothes business at Gikomba Market, said the couple had been married for 10 years.
Maina was a matatu driver along the Dandora-Kayole route.
Neighbours said they did not hear any commotion in the house on the second floor of the three-storey building and were shocked to find the two dead.
No one even saw Muthoni get back into the house after work on the night they died.
Neighbours learnt about the incident from Maina’s brother, Patrick Ngugi, when he came to the plot saying his brother was not picking his calls and that he had come to find out why.
Even their next-door neighbour, David Mwangi, said he did not hear any commotion in the house or any strange noise.
“The only thing I remember is that around 4pm on Monday there was some strange smell, like leaking petroleum gas. We were not sure whether it was gas. We asked everyone in the compound to check their gas cylinders. I even knocked on Simon’s door and he told me his cylinder was intact,” said Mwangi.
Ngugi reportedly said his brother had called to inform him that he had found his wife dead but he feared making a report to the police for fear of being implicated.
“This is shocking. No one had an idea such a thing could happen,” said Mwangi. “But we could not break the door before the police arrived.”
Another neighbour, Mary Nyaguthie, said the couple had not been staying together.
“What I know is the woman moved here from Dandora due to alleged domestic problems. In fact, when the husband visited for the first time, he did not even know her house, he only asked for Mama Kiarie. It has been about six months since she moved here,” Nyaguthie said yesterday.
She described Muthoni as a hard-working woman. “She would leave the house as early as 4am to attend to her business and never returned home before 8pm.”
She added: “I thought she was planning to relocate when I heard she had come back at 10 am.”
When The Standard visited the home, Muthoni’s niece was gathering her belongings.
On the bed were bags full of clothes and other household items wrapped in lessos and curtains.
“They used to fight, which is normal for a couple. However, I never expected this turn of events,” said the niece, who declined to be named.
Mwangi said his brother had told him he had left some money in the house and suspected his wife was planning to run away with it, hence the deaths.
A detective attached to Kiambu who only identified himself as Inspector Munyalo told The Standard they suspected the man poisoned his wife before faking a double suicide.
“Some strange smell was coming from the woman’s mouth. We suspect it may be some form of drug. It is difficult to have a double suicide by hanging,” the officer said.
