Juja woman who was killed, stashed in suitcase identified

Police estimate that the woman is in her early twenties. [File, Standard]

The youthful woman who was killed, the body stashed in a suitcase and dumped near the GSU barracks in Kimbo, Kiambu County, on Monday evening has been identified as Esther Wambui.

She worked as a waitress at a hotel near Total Energies Petrol Station in Ruiru.

Until her death, Wambui, a resident of Prisons area in Ruiru, was dating a man who works at a mattress-production company.  The two had been together for one-and-a-half years, an informant close to the couple told The Standard.

Attendants at the City Mortuary, who received her body on Monday evening, described her as a “petite woman, who appears to be in her early twenties”.

“Her appearance resembles that of a college girl,” one of the attendants told The Standard in confidence.

Wambui had been stashed in the suitcase naked, with her hands tied at the back and her legs bound together.

On Tuesday, her partner had filed a missing person’s report at the Juja Police Station. He was advised to check whether the body of the woman that was moved to City Mortuary the previous night was that of his lover.

When he arrived at City Mortuary on Tuesday evening, he was taken to where Wambui’s body had been preserved.

“Upon viewing the body, he broke into tears. He later confirmed that the woman was his partner of nearly two years,” an attendant at City Mortuary told The Standard.

Police had taken Wambui’s body to the facility on Monday night after collecting it from the scene where it had been dumped.

Wambui’s fingerprints were processed, with the hope of establishing her identity. However, before police could conclude their findings, her lover showed up at the morgue and positively identified her.

Her body remains preserved at the morgue, pending postmortem.

Wambui and her lover were planning to tie the knot sometime later this year, a family member told The Standard.

Juja Sub-County Police Commander Dorothy Miragusha told The Standard that the matter has been taken up by Kiambu County DCI officers.

“We haven’t arrested any suspect so far,” she said, adding that Wambui’s family has since been informed about the development.

Wambui was born and raised in Nakuru County.

“Her family has requested for the matter to be settled out of the media spotlight,” said Miragusha.

On Monday, the Juja police boss told The Standard that preliminary investigations suggested that the woman, aged between 18 and early 20s, was strangled.

“The body had been wrapped in a nylon sack and stashed in a black suitcase. Her hands were tied at the back, while her legs were bound together using a manila rope. A nylon cord suspected to have been used in her strangulation was tied around her neck,” a police report filed at the Mugutha Police Station, under the OB Number 26/17/1/2022, said.

“She had a deep cut injury on her left breast,” read the report filed at 7:40pm on Monday, January 17.

Members of the public became curious when the suitcase remained on the road unclaimed for nearly two hours.

Juja police chief Miragusha said a message that took the form of a revenge note was written on the woman’s breasts, thighs and palms.

“The message said: ‘bwana ya mtu sumu (dating someone’s husband is akin to taking poison)’,” said Miragusha.

The message had been written using a blue biro pen.

Miragusha said preliminary investigations indicated that the young woman was killed elsewhere and her body dumped in Kimbo.