Couple, children arrested for keeping woman's body in house for a week

Police carrying the decomposing body of woman found inside her son's house at Mutithi village in Kirinyaga County.The son is suspected to be a member of a religious cult.

Photo credit: George Munene I Nation Media Group

A man suspected to be a member of a religious cult was arrested yesterday by police after the decomposing body of his mother was found in his house in Mutithi village, Kirinyaga County.

He was seized together with his wife and two children and locked up at the Kiamaciri Police Station for questioning.

Relatives said the man’s mother, Tabitha Wakathare, 67, died at his home as he had barred her from seeking medical treatment.

After she died on Thursday last week, his son kept her body in the bathroom in the main house and the family continued living there as if nothing had happened.

He would wake up in the morning and pray for his mother to resurrect but in vain.

"With the assistance of a female stranger from outside the region, the man kept invoking the name of his god to bring his mother back to life. After praying for days, he relaxed, saying he was waiting for good news of resurrection from his god," a villager said.

But yesterday, relatives went to the man's house to check on Ms Wakathare after she failed to return to her home in Ciranga, near Kimbimbi town, where she lived alone.

Her husband died last year after a short illness.

On arrival, the man turned them away. Relatives became suspicious that something was amiss when they saw houseflies hovering in the compound and alerted police.

Shocked residents watch as a decomposing body of a woman is removed from a house belonging to her son at Mutithi village in Kirinyaga county.

Photo credit: George Munene I Nation Media Group

The police and Kiandegwa sub-location Assistant Chief Benson Kinyua stormed the man's house and found the decaying body of the elderly woman lying in the bathroom.

Villagers attempted to lynch the man

They immediately apprehended the man, his wife and their two children, one of them a university student, and whisked them away as hundreds of angry villagers watched.

At one point, villagers attempted to lynch the man but were restrained by the police.

Evans Mwaniki, a brother of the suspect, said the suspect denied the ailing Ms Wakathare treatment and took her to his home, where he continued praying for her.

"Anytime we wanted to take her to hospital for a medical check-up, he refused until she died in his hands," said Mr Mwaniki, the elder son of the woman.

Mr Mwaniki said his brother, a French beans broker, started behaving strangely last year after becoming "saved". He would pray for people who had various problems in his house, claiming that he had divine powers.

"He abruptly stopped being a broker and embarked on preaching and praying for people secretly in his house. Sometimes he would travel to Nairobi to meet his fellow prayer mates and return home and remain indoors with his family," he said.

Mr Mwaniki said he was still reeling in shock after his mother’s death.

"Before my mother was taken away by my brother, we used to take her to the hospital. She had started doing well until my brother forcibly went with her to his posh home, which he built on a plot he bought far away from our parents' home," he said.

Mwea West sub-county police boss Wilson Koskei said the death of the woman was being investigated and appealed to her relatives to be patient.

He said the body was taken to Kibugi Funeral Home for a postmortem.

Mr Koskei said the man and his wife could be charged with the death of Ms Wakathare.

He said consultations were going on about what charges to bring against the couple.