Shock as two family members found dead in Kirinyaga

Shocked residents at Mwathaini village in Kirinyaga where two members of the same family were found murdered.

Photo credit: George Munene | Nation Media Group

Two members of the same family were on Saturday found hacked to death under mysterious circumstances at Mwathaini in Kirinyaga County.

The victims, a man and his sister-in-law were separately found dead in their rental rooms, with deep cuts, a clear indication that they were brutally killed by unknown criminals.

It is suspected that they were murdered on Monday as their bodies had started decomposing.

Relatives said, the victims, Simon Mureithi, 57 and his sister-law Waruguru Wachira 55 were found lying in their beds.

It is suspected the woman, whose husband died last year was raped by the killers before her life was snuffed out.

Relatives told of how they became suspicious when they failed to see the victims for days and went to check on them in their rooms.

On arrival, they saw flies hovering over the area and suspected there was something amiss.

It was then that they reported the matter a Wang'uru Police Station.

Police forced their way into the rooms, only to find the bodies and removed them to Kerugoya Referral Hospital mortuary.

A villager, Sospeter Njeru said the villagers were still reeling in shock following the incident.

A relative, John Njoka said the victims lived in Separate rental rooms.

Njoka said the killers could have been only interested in eliminating the victims as nothing was stolen from their rooms.

"The assailants planned and murdered the victims before they took off unnoticed," said Mr Njoka.

Following the fatal attack, family members are now crying for justice.

"We want those who committed the crime to be exposed and legal action taken against them," said Mr Njoka.

Mwea East police commander Daniel Kitavi said investigations were on to establish the motive behind the heinous act.

"We want to find who murdered the victims and why they did it. We are treating the matter as murder," he said.

He asked residents to cooperate and volunteer information that could assist detectives to unearth the killers.