Woman, three daughters to appear in court over death of husband

A woman and her three daughters will today be arraigned over the death of her husband on Saturday last week.

The four suspects, who will appear before the Kandara Principal Magistrate, are unlikely to be charged today because police are not through with investigations.

Officers from the Gatanga Directorate of Criminal Investigations are yet to unravel the motive behind the killing of John Maina, a former employee of Del Monte Kenya Ltd.

"The matter is under investigation and the suspects will appear before court to comply with the law. Police will seek 14 days to enable them gather crucial evidence," said County Police Commander Josphat Kinyua.

Maina's brother, John Ndirangu, told police that he visited the deceased's home at 6am on Saturday morning, and found his sister-in-law and her daughters outside with a badly burnt body.

Ndirangu said he discovered that they were dragging his brother's body to a shallow grave that they had dug near the family house. 

The brother said that he raised the alarm and neighbours stormed the compound where he narrated to them what had transpired.

The crowd was restrained by elders from lynching the 47-year-old woman and her daughters after they allegedly confessed to killing Maina.

The girls are in Form Three, Form Two and Standard Eight.