Mystery of Murang'a granny, 84, who 'hanged herself' with her feet on the floor

The family of Mrs Jane Beth Waigwe in Murang'a is yet to understand how she hanged herself.

The body of the 84-year-old was found with her feet on the floor, and her knees bent. The family is wondering why the police ignored crucial details from the crime scene.  

On June 5, at around 8am, Waigwe was found dead in her outdoor bathroom with a rope around her neck in a way that suggested she had hanged herself.

She had lived alone in her compound for the past 25 years after her five children, aged between 48 and 65, left to live in different towns.

Also read: Murang’a granny, 70, found dead in a pit latrine

“But we kept regular checks on her and had bought her a phone so she could reach us. And we took turns visiting her every week for the past 10 years and had her medically checked twice a year," said her eldest son, Mr Titus Kariuki.

He insisted that his mother's death smacked of foul play.

"A woman who had no pressures of life because she lacked nothing. There were no debts, no arguments, no threats to her life, no relationship to push her to the brink. A woman with such peace and comfort just wakes up and decides to hang herself? Not my mother," said her daughter, Ms Mary Njeri.

On June 4, Waigwe was in a jovial mood, chatting with visitors, and the last person to be with her — a neighbour called Jane — said they parted company around 6pm.

"I am not a mind reader, but there was nothing suicidal about her. I got no indication that she might be preparing to hang herself in the next few hours," Ms Judy Wambui told Nation.Africa in Gitiri village, Kiharu constituency.

The village is adjacent to that of Kiamikoe, where on February 20, a gang raided two homes, took out two elderly women and lynched them, claiming they were witches.

Jane Wambui, 85, and Mary Njoki, 75, were taken from their homes at around 8.30pm and, subjected to two hours of beatings while being questioned and then set on fire.

"There are very strange elements in parts of Kiharu constituency and we cannot rule out anything. It is up to the police to help us understand this strange death of our mother," Ms Njeri added.

Recently, John Kuria, an 85-year-old disabled man who lived alone in Gitiri village, was found murdered in his house.

"Even after the police failed to arrest the killer, the villagers conducted their own investigations and after a week, they lynched a male suspect in the neighbouring village of Gitui," said a resident, Mr Michael Njogu.

A village elder, Mr Robert Irungu, said: "This is a society of many enterprises, including criminals who can make murder look like suicide.

Waigwe was described by her neighbours as a Christian, a peacemaker who loved to pray, sing and keep abreast with current affairs through radio.

Mr Daniel Gichuhi, who leased some of her land, was the one who discovered the body.

"I was using her house as a storage place for my farming equipment. I went to her house to take them. I found her door locked from the outside. I could not open it. I started looking for her while calling her name," he said.

Mr Gichuhi said he moved around the compound and as he passed the toilet that is next to the bathroom, he saw something strange.

"I noticed that the door to the toilet was closed while the door to the bathroom was open, and there was a silhouette …," he said.
Mr Gichuhi raised the alarm and neighbours gathered.

"I want this matter investigated. My grandmother did not hang herself. She was murdered. Not because I have a suspect in mind, but because the scene is suspicious," said Mr Bonny Kamande.

"My grandmother did not even know how to remove her Sim card from the phone. But when she was found dead, the Sim card was found in her kitchen," he said.

The phone, keys and Sh700 were found in the pit latrine.

"We family members made the discovery when we started looking for answers. Even after we told the police, they advised us to lock the toilet as they made plans to come and retrieve it. They are yet to come," he said.

Six days after her death, when journalists visited the house, the items were still in the pit latrine.

Another strange thing was that Waigwe could not walk without her walking stick, yet on the day she was found dead, the cane was lying some distance away from the scene, raising doubts among her family as to whether she had walked to the bathroom.

This, coupled with the fact that there was no chair at the scene, or anything else to help her hoist herself into the noose and then jump to her death, added to the family's doubts about how she died.

A relative, Mr Julius Gicheru, insisted that the outside of the bathroom appeared to have been disturbed by several feet.

"In investigations, every detail matters and I am sure I saw a sign of struggle outside the bathroom," he said.

On the other hand, the police report prepared at the scene, supported by crime scene photographs, shows the deceased neatly dressed and with no signs of being roughed up.

"She was wearing her grey and white striped marvin (knitted hat), a matching jumper and her leso tied neatly around her waist. There was no sign of a disturbance in her house, on the way to the bathroom and where she was found strangled," the report said.

The police report describes the death as a "suspected suicide".

When Nation.Africa contacted Dr Anne Murigi, a psychiatrist based in Murang'a town, about the case, she recommended that "you go and ask around for any telltale signs that the deceased had depression".

She said suicide was more often than not a reaction to depression.

"Odd behaviour? Let me see ... Okay, I visited her on June 1 from Nairobi where I live and even though I was her favourite grandson, she ordered me to leave the house and also recommended the road I should take to the matatu terminus to escape harm that she never defined," Mr Kamande recalled.

And on June 2, his grandmother did something strange — she called him at 9pm.

"She had made it a rule that no one should call her after 6pm. In all cases, we were the ones who called her, but this time, she called me in the middle of the night and I was very disturbed. Her message to me was that we should live in peace as a family and make love our bond," he revealed.

Ms Njeri, also said: "She had recently escalated her calls for us to have a meeting and reaffirm our love and compassion for each other.”

She had also asked to know the number of grandchildren and great-grandchildren she had and was happy to hear that there were 45.

"She was also happy that we had bought her blood pressure medication after it had been prescribed for her in March," she said.

A week before her death, for the first time in about five years, she left home unaccompanied to visit relatives who lived about three kilometres away.

"A premonition also plays in the mind and it is a condition. It cannot be called a disease, but such a premonition of the end can also come out as some kind of despair," Dr Murigi said, adding, however, that the revealed incidents could not conclusively support the view that Waigwe might have killed herself to escape a troubled life.

"This issue can only be solved by a police investigation. There are aspects that can be captured in a general observation of the body and also in a post-mortem. The results of both can tell a story," she concluded.

Kahuro Sub-County Police boss Catherine Ringera said: “The post-mortem will be conducted on June 14 to look for marks that can lead us to support the suspicion of foul play."

“If there are signs of cruelty to her, beatings, scratches or cuts ... if the post-mortem shows that she died from other causes, that will help us to conclude the investigation."

The crime scene investigation will be complemented by the post-mortem to provide a deeper understanding of the death, she said.

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