Search intensifies for 3 missing children after bodies of their parents were found in Nairobi and Thika

Nairobi, KENYA: Police are searching for three children who went missing on Tuesday after the bodies of their parents were found in separate locations in Nairobi and Thika.

The family of lawyer Paul Magu and police are looking for the children who were identified as nine-year-old Allen, eight-year-old Ryan and five-year-old Tiffany Muthoni who are missing since the parents died in mysterious circumstances.

The children were pupils at Garden Estate Academy in Nairobi. The pictures of the children have been posted on the social media by the family who wants the public to help them in tracing their whereabouts.

The badly mutilated body of Magu's wife Lydia Wangui, 30, was found near Paradise Lost along Kiambu Road in Nairobi on Monday and later taken to the City Mortuary.

Police said the body was dropped by occupants of a salon car and had been partially burnt when it was discovered. The occupants of the car had apparently tried to drop the body into a dam nearby but realised there were people playing there prompting them to abandon it in a thicket.

The body of Magu was found on the Thika- Garissa highway near Ngoliba on Wednesday where police believe he had either committed suicide or pushed onto a speeding bus, which ran over him.

The driver of the bus which was coming from Garissa told police he saw Magu jump onto the road as he sped to the city.

The clothes of Magu, 35, were found in his car whose engine was running at the time it was discovered.

Police records show Lydia's body had a deep cut in the head and back apart from being burnt.

Officers from CID headquarters' Serious Crime Unit are handling the case and have so far visited the scenes where the bodies were discovered and home of the couple.

Head of the Unit John Kariuki said they are yet to know the motive of the deaths and missing children.

"We are following many leads including claims of involvement of a church he was serving, suicide, ritual sacrifice and murder," said an officer aware of the investigations but who asked not to be named.

The officer said they had searched thickets near where Magu's car was found abandoned, mortuaries and talked to the extended family and friends in a bid to find the children in vain.

Police visited their home in Muthaiga Pipeline estate and collected what they termed as samples that can help them investigate the incident. They discovered bloodstains in the bedroom of the couple.

Magu's brother Andrew Mahiu told police the deceased had stopped practicing law four years ago and ventured into theology serving at the Faith Evangelistic Ministry.

"We have been seeing changes in him in the last four years when he stopped practicing. He has changed churches since then and he avoided his family," said Mahiu.

On Tuesday, Magu spent the night at his father's home in Thika before he woke up early the following day and left when he met his death. Whereas he had left his home with the children, they were not there when he arrived at his father's home in Thika, police said.

His mobile phone was found near a pond that is near his father's homestead and police say they want to know who he had talked to before he died.