Five held after woman killed

Police in Machakos have arrested five suspects linked to last week’s brutal attack and killing of a 60-year-old woman at Kyambuko village of Mumbuni location.

The suspects, who include relatives of the woman, also attacked and seriously injured her son Jackson Makau who had responder to her distress call on Saturday night.

Reports indicate the assailants hacked Juliana Mwikali Ngui and locked her inside her house before setting it on fire.

Machakos District Criminal Investigations Officer Rhoda Kanyi, said the assailants had traveled from Mtito Andei in Makueni County where they had attacked and seriously injured the woman’s husband, Nelson Ngui.

“They then traveled using a motorcycle to the victim’s other home in Machakos where they set the house on fire,” Kanyi said.

She said the woman’s husband sustained a fractured arm and deep cuts in the head while her son is nursing multiple injuries. Sources at Kyambuko village, where plans to bury the woman are underway, linked the attacks to family land disputes.

“The deceased and her husband recorded a statement over threats to their lives at Machakos Police Station in April but it appears the threats were not taken seriously,” a neighbour said.

Another villager claimed the attackers stormed the deceased’s home before ordering her to open the door where they assaulted her with crude weapons before pouring petrol on her and setting the house on fire. She was burnt beyond recognition.

The deceased’s husband and son said the attackers are people well known to them.