Mombasa woman accused of killing husband probed for child's death

A woman accused of killing her husband by setting him ablaze is now being investigated for the murder of her one-year-old daughter.

Diana Kwamboka, 28, is suspected of killing her baby and burying her secretly at a Muslim cemetery in Likoni, Mombasa.

Police suspect she fled with the child to her lover, who is now in hiding, after setting her husband ablaze inside a locked house in Majengo Mapya, Likoni, on April 8 this year.

Yesterday, Chief Government Pathologist Johansen Oduor, supervised the exhumation of the infant’s body after Kwamboka was escorted from police cells to identify the grave.
Likoni OCPD Willy Simba and udiciary officials were present during the exhumation of Brandy Josephine’s body at the cemetery in Kindunguni village.

Kwamboka was arrested last week. She had gone into hiding after allegedly killing her husband, Mohammed Juma, on April 8.

Kwamboka looked composed as she pointed out her daughter’s grave.

The cemetery where the girl was buried is just behind the house where Kwamboka is alleged to have been living with her boyfriend after she burnt and murdered her husband and took off.

The exhumation took close to one hour.

While the body was being retrieved from the shallow grave, court proceedings were going in Senior Resident Magistrate Irene Ruguru’s court. 

The prosecution asked for more time to conduct investigations and Ms Ruguru gave them ten days.

“We are here to exhume the body of the one-year-old child who we suspect could have been killed by her mother Kwamboka after she murdered her husband and took off.

“We believe that she killed her child to conceal evidence because she went missing after committing the murder and was only arrested last week after being sought for two weeks,” said Mr Simba.

Simba said that apart from the murder charges, Kwamboka will also be charged with arson because several the house she had set ablaze was extensively damaged.

poured paraffin

“Kwamboka will also be charged with arson, she set her husband on fire and following that, several rooms were burnt causing extensive damage of property,” said Simba.

The woman is said to have poured paraffin on the bed while her husband was asleep at around 8am, locked the door from outside, lit a match stick and threw it inside the house.

Likoni Deputy OCPD Anthony Shimoli said that the man had sustained 80 per cent third degree burns.

Reports indicate that Kwamboka escaped to Kindunguni village where she stayed with another man suspected to be her boyfriend.

The man went underground after Kwamboka was arrested.

Villagers booed and heckled the woman as she was led out of the police vehicle to the cemetery where she pin-pointed the exact place where her daughter was buried.

Dr Oduor said a post-mortem would be conducted to establish the cause of the child’s death.

“We have already exhumed the body and it will be taken to Coast General Hospital Morgue where tomorrow we shall conduct an autopsy to establish the exact cause of death,” Said Oduor.

And a human rights activist, Julius Ogogo, asked investigators to conduct a medical check up on Kwamboka, saying that she might be mentally unstable.

“Let a check up be done so that we can know if she is mentally stable or not, we have reports that she was once a drug addict and was staying along Makadara Street in Mombasa before she got married,” said Mr Ogogo.