Nairobi-based Catholic priest dies hours after checking into a hotel with lover

Rev. Fr. Joseph Kariuki of St Peters Catholic Parish, Ruai. [Kamore Maina, Standard]

A 43-year-old Catholic priest has been pronounced dead, hours after checking into a hotel with his lover.

According to a police report seen by The Standard, Joseph Kariuki checked into Monalisa Hotel, Murang'a on Saturday evening, June 8.

He was in the company of a 32-year-old woman identified as, Ruth Nduhi, and the couple spent the night at the hotel.

Police say Nduhi doubled up as a lover and colleague to the priest. Kariuki was a Catholic priest at the Archdiocese of Nairobi and a farmer in Mang'u, Kiambu County.

However, on Sunday morning, the clergyman developed some health complications prompting his lover to seek help from the hotel staff.

"Then this morning at around 0800hrs the priest (sic) girlfriend notified the hotel management that the boyfriend was being |(sic) dizzy and getting unconscious so that they could rush him to the hospital,"

Police say Kariuki was pronounced dead on arrival at Kenol Hospital.

"Officer from this command responded and found the body in the car back seat half covered with the hotel bedsheet and white foam oozing from the mouth and nose," the police report reads in part.

The body has been moved to Mater Hospital Mortuary, as police launch investigations to ascertain the cause of his death.