UoN lecturer arrested after son, 13 found dead in her house

Portraits of University of Nairobi lecturer and her late son. She was arrested after the decomposing body of her son 13 years was found wrapped in a blanket in their South B house, Nairobi on October 24, 2019. [Edward Kiplimo, Standard]

A university lecturer was on Wednesday arrested after the decomposing body of her 13-year-old son was found wrapped in a blanket in their house in Nairobi’s South B estate.

Portraits of Annah Khahugani and her son Solomon Inyama stood on a black bookshelf at corner in their house located on sixth-floor house. The two portraits show they were probably the only members of that household. The boy was Annah’s only son.

On the table was a Bible, a notebook and a blue duvet, but the smell emanating from the house betrayed the fact that all was not well.

Annah is a lecturer at the University of Nairobi’s School of Nursing while her son was a Standard Six pupil at Riara School.

Police said they found the decomposing body of the boy in the sitting room, wrapped in a blanket.

It is not clear how long the body had been there, but those who visited the scene said it seemed to have been between four and five days old.

The caretaker of the apartment, Stephen Mwangi, said he was going around collecting rent since there were some tenants who had defaulted and Annah was one of them.

“When I knocked on the door, no one opened, but when I rang her up I could hear the phone ringing inside the house,” Mwangi said.

He decided to check one of the windows and found it open. When he peeped through it he saw a body lying on the floor in the sitting room.

“There was a foul smell emanating from the room and there were houseflies all over the body. I decided to report the matter to the police,” Mwangi said.

Cut grill

Police were forced to cut the grill of the main door to access the house because Annah had locked it from inside.

According to Mwangi, Annah and her son had lived in the house for about five years. He said she was an extremely religious person and from time to time, she would notify him in case she had prayer meetings at her house.

She told police the son fell and died in the house. She said she did not take him to the hospital because she does not believe in hospitals.

She was detained at Industrial Area Police Station ahead of a planned visit to a psychiatric for assessment of her mental status.

Annah was found hiding in a cupboard after officers broke into the house. 

Area police boss Kimani Mitugo said Annah is in their custody and investigations are still ongoing. He said the body was taken to Chiromo mortuary for postmortem.

Mitugo said a postmortem, psychiatrist reports and other evidence would aid the investigations.