Double tragedy as Kenyan man kills wife and commits suicide

Earlier this year, the late Mrs Olivia Osidiana was detained at Nakuru War Memorial Hospital following a medical bill worth Sh 600,000 in three months, the County government came to her rescue sorting out the bill. {PHOTO: BONIFACE THUKU }

Shock and grief engulfed residents of Freehold in Bondeni estate of Nakuru County after a jilted husband allegedly slit the throat of his estranged wife and committed suicide in front of their two children.

The landlord said neighbours were attracted by a foul smell emanating from the woman’s house yesterday morning. After breaking into the house, they found a baby boy crying as he struggled to breastfeed. His mother lay dead in a pool of blood.

Next to the woman’s blood-soaked body was another boy, six, who was crying as he attempted to pull his brother from the murder scene. The landlord, Elijah Mwangi, said above the body of the woman, another body of man was hanging from the roof. “It’s not clear when the man sneaked in. After viewing the man’s body nobody identified him,” said the landlord.

Police rushed to the scene and identified the two bodies as those of Olivia Osidiana and her estranged husband Jackson Odongo.

Eight months ago, the couple was blessed with a bouncing baby boy (Jeremy) at War Memorial Hospital in Nakuru. The baby was admitted at the hospital when he developed complications after delivery.

The bills at the time had risen to Sh533,000 from December 18, 2014, but the couple could not raise the money forcing the hospital to detain their baby.

But after the baby’s plight was published and aired in the media, the family received help from well-wishers including the County Government of Nakuru.

The county government paid Sh590,000 to the hospital while another Sh200,000 was collected through a paybill number from well-wishers who stood with Baby Jeremy, and they were released from hospital on April 15, 2015.

That was when more trouble hit the family. A few days after the money was deposited in a bank account, Odongo accused his wife of pushing for a divorce. She left the matrimonial home. “The baby’s story touched many people and money was contributed only to turn out to be the start of their troubles and death,” said Susan Wanjiru, a resident.

According to the landlord, the woman who worked at the Nakuru Rural Water and Sanitation Services in Nakuru approached him, looking for a house to rent and succeeded to get one about two months ago.

“She informed me that her husband was a drunkard and used to assault her. It was her painful narrative that forced me to make quick arrangements for her to get in even before she cleared paying rent,” said the landlord.

Nakuru Deputy OCPD Janet Wasige said initial investigations suggest the husband butchered the wife before hanging himself. The woman’s body had been nicely covered with a blanket and next to it was a pool of blood. Clothes had also been left scattered on the floor, indicating that a commotion might have ensued before the woman was overpowered and killed

.“The woman’s body had a deep stab in the stomach and the throat slit. From the look of things, a confrontation occurred before she met her death,” the Deputy OCPD said.

Their bodies were taken to Nakuru County morgue as police launched investigations to establish the possible cause of the mysterious deaths.

Kicked out

In August, Odongo, who worked as a timber merchant in Nakuru town, claimed his wife had kicked him out of their matrimonial home.

“After the money was raised, my wife began pushing for divorce. She was abusing me every single minute. I was uncomfortable staying under the same roof with her, I moved to stay with my mother,” Odongo said in an interview.

In an interview with The Nairobian, he claimed his wife started abusing him soon after the bill was cleared. But even as the dispute over the donation threatened to tear the couple apart, Ms Olivia denied kicking Odongo out of their matrimonial home claiming they had never lived under one roof despite being officially married. “I did not chase the man out of the house, I told him to pull up his socks... to meet the needs of the family as the head,” she said in an interview.