Man murders wife in christmas dispute

An apparently decomposed body of a 24 year old mother who recently returned to high school after six years of a troubled marriage to a childhood sweetheart has been found in a rented house in Mombasa's Likoni slums. Reports show that she was killed as she cooked on Christmas Eve and her body which was discovered Thursday decayed fast owing to Mombasa's torrid temperature.
Besides it is alleged that her husband tried to conceal her death by dissuading her family from calling her on cell-phone. And the suspect in the killing is her estranged husband, a matatu driver who is recovering in hospital after allegedly taking poison to end his life fearing that his wife on whom he depended was going to leave him after returning to school. The couple who have a six year old son married as teenagers when the woman got pregnant in Form 3 by her estranged husband. The man who dropped out of high school to concentrate on the marriage has been earning a living by driving her father-in-law’s matatu and is said to have feared losing the job if the wife returned to school.

According to the deceased's father, a teacher in Kwale County, his daughter was set to join form four next year at Presbyterian Girls High School in Mariakani. He told The Standard that the two never had a peaceful marriage adding that he had taken it upon himself to support his son-in-law by employing him as his matatu driver. The man is reported to be in critical condition at the Coast Provincial General Hospital (CPGH) where he is admitted after he allegedly took poison to end his life. It is thought that the suspect used a blunt object to hit the wife on her head as she cooked chapati on the fateful night following a disagreement over permission to attend a Christmas Eve’s party. ''As a family, we never consented to the union of the two but there were threats from both my daughter and son-in-law that if they were not allowed to be together, either of them was going to take their own life,'' the crest fallen father told the media at the Pandya Memorial Hospital where police had taken the woman’s body for preservation at the mortuary. An uncle to the deceased, Zachariah Mutunga went to look for the woman after the husband had given conflicting reports on his wife's whereabouts but stumbled on her decomposed body instead.

He added that the man is said to have immediately left the house and headed for a drinking spree with colleagues whom he offered rounds of drinks. ''He told them that they were seeing him for the last time before he made a disappearing act,'' Mutunga said.   A bottle of triatix poison was alleged recovered from him by colleagues who went to look for him in Perani near Lunga Lunga where his extended family was converging for Christmas celebrations. ''He was rushed to Perani Medical Clinic where staff referred him to Diani Hospital before he was referred to the Coast Provincial General Hospital Intensive Care Unit (ICU),'' Mutunga said. Likoni OCPD, Robert Muriithi confirmed the incident and said police were investigating the matter. Murithi did not indicate whether the man is a suspect but said that "I can confirm that the man who killed his wife also took poison."

The deceased leaves behind a six year old boy who is now in the care of his grandparents.