Police are investigating claims a 32-year-old woman  killed her husband  and their two  children before committing suicide at their home in Thome estate, Nairobi.

The police said they want to find out if there was any other party that could be involved in the murder.

The home was deserted when the Standard visited yesterday.

A neighbour who sought anonymity and owns a shop in the area said the woman was her friend and she always bought from her but never shared with her or anyone about her marital issues.

They only came to realize after the deaths that the man aged 37, had several times reported of being assaulted by the wife, who was a food vendor in the area, but the domestic disputes seemed not to end.

&ldquo We only came to know later that the man was being assaulted by the wife and each time he went to the police post to report, he found his wife already made a report accusing him of one thing or the other,” said the neighbour.

The bodies of the four were discovered on Tuesday afternoon after customers who used to buy food from the woman at a construction site raised queries over her whereabouts.

It was then that the local Nyumba Kumi chairman was alerted, and upon going to the couple’s house  he found  the entire family of four dead.

The neighbour said when she and other witnesses got into the house, one could clearly guess that there was a tussle because everything was scattered, including clothes.

The body of the woman  was seen hanging from the roof of the house. It was alleged that the woman  must have strangled to death their two  children  aged 14 and three years before hanging herself with a rope in the house.

It is also believed that the man, a casual labourer at a neighbouring school, was attacked with an axe while asleep and struck him to death. His was found  lying dead on the bed, witnesses and police said.

&ldquo A deep cut was seen on the back of his neck and stab wounds on the side of his stomach. Crocheted seat covers were seen tied around the children’s faces, on their noses and mouths seemingly to suffocate them,” said the neigbour.

&ldquo What shocked me the most is that this lady was my friend, she buys from me but I have never heard her complain about her husband. The husband is always busy, leaves in the morning and comes back late,” she said.

It is not clear yet if the woman was behind the incident. Police said they had been informed the couple was embroiled in recurrent domestic disputes.

Kasarani police boss Peter Kimani said they want to establish if there was any other party that was involved in the murder. He said they had not established the motive of the incident.

He added the man had told the local chief of his predicaments

Police officers from Kasarani Police Station visited the scene before the bodies were moved to City Mortuary.

Kimani said they are investigating the incident. A postmortem is planned on the bodies to establish how they died.