By Wainaina Ndungâu
On the evening of December 18, last year, Simon Kiragu Mwangi, 42, the Kirinyaga County Lands Officer and his wife, Joyce Akinyi Adede had a drink at a popular entertainment spot in Kerugoya town. In the wee hours of the night, they left for their house in Miringa-Iri Estate never to be seen alive again.
Their bodies were discovered two days later on Tuesday afternoon by one of their salon employees brutally murdered on their matrimonial bed. Not even the neighbours heard them being killed.
The employee went to look for them when her employer failed to turn up for two consecutive days.
Kirinyaga Central OCPD Peter Omwano says the employee knocked on the door several times without getting a response. She then decided to push the door, which she discovered was not locked.
lifeless bodies
All the other doors inside the house were ajar and on peeping in the bedroom, the woman was shocked to see lifeless, naked bodies of her employer and her husband lying in a blood soaked bed.
She raised the alarm prompting other tenants to come out and see the grisly sight. The coupleâs car was parked outside untouched. Nothing had been stolen from the vehicle or the house. The couple was believed to have been hacked with an axe the assailants picked from the kitchen.
"We have recovered the murder weapon from the coupleâs kitchen and we think it will provide us with clues," Omwano told journalists at the time. Months later, no arrests have been made.
The death of the couple was only one in a series of other mysterious killings that have left residents and law enforcement agencies in the area unable to determine whether a gang is involved or whether a serial killer is behind the killings.
The killings are executed in the night and the killer or killers leave without a trace. Neighbours to the victims do not hear even a whimper, yet the killings are brutal and ruthless. Mostly targeted are people living alone, especially young working women. Amazingly, nothing is stolen from victims leaving law enforcement agencies wondering what the motives of these killings are. Yet police wonât acknowledge there is a problem. Out of the dozens of deaths reported, police have only managed to arrest one suspect.
no arrests
