Journalist who murdered wife still on the run

By CYRUS OMBATI

A journalist is on the run after he murdered his wife, also a journalist, in their residence in Nairobi's Umoja estate.

Mr Moses Otieno Dola formerly of Nation Newspapers is alleged to have killed Sarah Wambui Kabiru formerly of NTV after a quarrel on Saturday night.

Dola is believed to have strangled Kabiru by either using his bare hands or a clothe. Her neck was swollen when police broke into the bedroom where the body was found on Sunday evening.

Sarah Wambui Kabiru [Picture/Courtesy]

He killed her and locked her in their bedroom before he escaped to unknown place. Nairobi Area PPO Anthony Kibuchi told The Standard efforts to get Dola for questioning are ongoing even as he asked him to surrender to authorities.

They had a boy aged two and half who was in the house with a house girl as his mother was being killed. The couple was sacked from Nation Media Group a year ago but Kabiru had secured a job with ICRAF almost a month ago.

Kabiru was supposed to travel to Ghana where she had been sent on assignment. She had obtained the traveling papers and was ready for the journey.

Dola had been working as a freelance journalist majoring in crime and investigative stories that he supplied to various media houses locally, which earned him a living.

He was also keen to join the police force. He tried in vain to join the police during last week’s recruitment exercise. Previously, according to his friends, he had been trying to be a police officer.

According to witness accounts, Dola may have killed Kabiru either on Saturday night or Sunday morning. Their house girl told police she had not seen Kabiru since Saturday night and when she asked Dola where she was on Sunday, he informed her she was a sleep.

The house girl said the two had had a brief quarrel on Saturday evening.

Interestingly, on Sunday, Dola called his mother in Kisumu and informed her he had killed his wife. He also called his father in-law, a military officer and informed him he had killed his daughter.

He did not explain the reasons for the heinous incident. He told them he had killed his wife, said Dola’s uncle Fredrick Ating’a who was among the first people to know of the incident.

Ating’a said he received a call from Kisumu from his parents who asked him to go and verify the scribe’s claims that he had killed his wife.

By then, another group of relatives that had been sent by Dola’s father in-law was also in the house on Sunday evening trying to confirm the same.

Kevin Chege, a caretaker at Petevero Plaza where the two stayed said Dola’s relatives arrived on Sunday and sought to know where Kabiru was.

"When we asked the house girl on where Kabiru was, she said she had not seen her and that Dola had informed her she was sleeping," said Chege.

Chege tried to open the door to the bedroom in vain. It was then that he involved police from Buruburu police station who broke the door and found the body on the bed.

Witnesses said the body had been covered with a bed sheet. Her handbag had been ransacked an indication Dola may have taken away some of her valuables.

"We thought she was sleeping until we touched the body to find it cold," said Chege who added he knew them as a loving couple because whenever they were in the house they left and came back together with shopping.

Ating’a said the two had had a misunderstanding few weeks ago before Kabiru called him and sought his intervention.

"They came to my house and we ironed out their problems which ranged from Dola’s nature of erratic behaviour," said Ating’a.

Moses Dola and his late wife Wambui Kabiru [Picture/Courtesy]

Ating’a revealed Kabiru had informed her she had got a job with ICRAF and posted to Ghana where she planned to travel early this month.

He said he talked with Dola on May 27, while he was coming from his Bondo rural home where he had gone to try to be enlisted to the police force in vain.

"He told me, uncle, I have not been taken but life must continue," said Atiang’a. According to Atiang’a, Dola was stressed since he lost his job.

The body was removed to the mortuary as the house girl and child were taken away by the woman’s family.

On Monday, police said they were yet to know where Dola is.