Mother and son found dead in family well

The bodies of a man and his mother were found inside the family well in Gituamba village, Githunguri constituency, Kiambu County on Tuesday evening in a suspected murder-suicide.

Ikinu location chief Peter Kariuki told the Nation Tuesday evening that Simon Kimani, 40, had recently joined a cult-like religion and had a falling out with his mother, Mercy Mugure, 66, over his decision to marry two wives.

Mr Kariuki said locals had informed him that for the better part of Monday, Mr Kimani looked unsettled before he walked into his mother's house, a kilometre away, where locals suspect he may have killed his mother inside her house and dumped in the well, then later took his life.

"What I understand from the locals is that he recently joined a cult-like religion and eventually married two wives. The mother was opposed to that and they had a fall out," he said.

Ikinu OCS Kamenya Mwita told the Nation that investigations are underway to determine what happened.

"We wait for the post-mortem to authoritatively say what really happened," he added.