Rahab Karisa during a past event.
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Theft could have made house help to kill Kilifi chief officer Rahab Karisa
An investigation by the Nation has pieced together information concerning the house help accused of killing her employer in Kilifi last week.
Interviews with people who had interacted closely with her prior to the tragedy as well as police officers involved in the investigations paint the picture of a woman with two sides.
In June 2022, the woman, who goes by different names, is said to have arrived in Mtopanga estate, Kisauni constituency, where she was employed as a house help by Ms Achieng Agolla Biwott. Police say that it is here she would later meet the mother to Rahab Karisa, the slain Kilifi County chief officer.
Preliminary investigations by the police, corroborated by Nation’s independent interviews, indicate that the suspect quit her job at the Biwotts early this year. She then moved in with Rahab’s mother before she was taken to Kilifi about four months ago.
In an exclusive interview with the Nation, Ms Biwott said that although she noticed some red flags about the woman, she gave her the benefit of doubt.
Her suspicions started on the first day they met as she interviewed her for the job. The suspect, who introduced herself as Diana, said she did not have an identity card on her because she had had to surrender it a police station where she had been held for being in possession of a stolen phone. She had bought the phone from someone.
When she later produced the ID, it added to the suspicion.
“She had introduced herself as Diana Wanyama but when I checked the ID, it was Sarah. So I asked her who was Sarah and who was Diana. She told me both are her names,” said Ms Biwott.
Her former employer says that she had planned to let her go after noticing that money and other valuables would disappear at her home. Some of these would be found in her bags, and she would claim that they might have been put in there by the children.
However, neighbours in both Mtopanga and Mnarani Classic in Kilifi where the tragedy happened painted a different picture. Several of them said that she was a jovial woman who was affable to them as well as children.
Witnesses say Rahab had just arrived from a week-long work tour of Italy when an argument ensued between her and her aunt, and the house help. Investigators who sought anonymity for lack of authority to speak on the matter said that Rahab found Sh32,000 missing from the Sh100,000 she had been keeping in her house.
“She sought answers from the house help as well as her aunt about the whereabouts of the money and threatened to report them to the police in the morning,” an investigator said.
One of their neighbours said they heard someone scream once but no one thought much about it until they started hearing commotion in the compound. Peeping outside she saw Rahab’s aunt and house help seemingly arguing.
“The house help was shouting and could be heard saying shetani, shetani. She kept repeating this until we went outside to find out what had happened. We tried to ask her what was troubling her, but she was just laughing hysterically,” said the neighbour.
Another witness said it is Rahab’s aunt who took them into the house and told them that the house help had killed her niece. It is believed that the help escaped as the neighbours streamed into the house.
