Mystery of women killing their husbands in Mombasa

 Agnes Mutheu in the dock at Mombasa High court where she is charged with stabbing her husband to death

The days of the sweet, pliable and sexy taarab dancing Mombasa woman could be over.

This is due to the growing legion of coastal belles on trial or serving jail terms for murder or attempted murder of their husbands.

Currently, no less than eight women are on trial for husband-murder related charges.

On February 28, heavily pregnant Pauline Gitonga Mukirishe was charged with murdering her husband Allois Matata Mayoli, a banker, with a kitchen knife after a bitter quarrel at their Bamburi house. After 42 days in custody, Pauline who denied the murder charge, was freed on bail from Shimo la Tewa Prison and taken to hospital after developing complications in prison.

Pauline allegedly attacked her husband with a knife after a domestic quarrel.

The quarrel started after she allegedly busted her husband with another woman in a local bar, sparking a disagreement that continued at home. Police later discounted initial claims that she severed the husband’s genitals in the attack, but indicated the victim had a stab wound on the left side of the groin, leading to heavy bleeding. The trial is pending.

In October last year, a woman and her maid were charged in Mombasa with plotting to kill her wealthy husband and hiring a hitman for the job.

The alleged hitman, James Odhiambo Wanyumba, reportedly, contracted to kill Polycarp Okumu Ocholla, was arrested at Rangwe in Homa Bay and brought to Mombasa to stand trial for conspiracy to murder alongside Rose Adhiambo Raminya and her maid Doris Akinyi. Polycarp has investments in the security sector and his estranged wife worked in one of his firms as a managing director before the alleged murder conspiracy was uncovered.

Meanwhile, early this year, 28-year-old Diana Kwamboka was placed under probe for double murder following claims she had locked her husband in a house, set it in on fire and then fled to her lover without realising that her daughter was trapped in the house.

The infant’s body was exhumed from a shallow grave in a Muslim cemetery in Likoni following a secret burial and an autopsy determined she died from the effects of the fire.

Reports indicate Kwamboka confessed to police during interrogation that the daughter, Brandy died in the fire and that she buried her secretly.

Police received court orders to exhume the corpse. The exhumation was supervised by Chief Government Pathologist Dr Johanssen Oduor who told journalists that the autopsy findings showed “the body of the child had sustained about 40-50 per cent degree burns. It had some burns in the head and on the left side of the body. We have every reason to believe that she died from the burns and was secretly buried by the mother so that she could conceal the evidence.”

Records at the Mombasa Law Courts registry also show that Lucy Wanja Mwaura is on trial for the murder of Fred Dori Tagol at Summer Link Guest House on May 18, 2016, while the trial of Teresia Mukulu John for killing Benard Nyongesa on December 3 2015 is still pending.

Another case is that of Agnes Mutheu who is serving a 20-year sentence at Shimo la Tewa for stabbing and killing her husband Anthony Hanjari on December 16, 2013.