Troubled marriage ends tragically in murder and suicide

When Daniel Nyaga (34) picked up a knife and stabbed his estranged wife Mary Wanjiku (32) to death in a fit of rage on December 8, his action led to series of events that would culminate in his own demise and throw their three children’s world into a spin.

It all began with rumours of a pregnancy and accusations of infidelity. 

Wanjiku got wind of talk that Nyaga had made a woman in their Ngong neighbourhood pregnant. 

Incensed, she packed up her belongings and left their matrimonial home, renting a single-roomed house in Oloolua, Kajiado County.

This was on December 3, as her brother Joseph Ndung’u explained: “The day before he killed my sister, he called me in the morning to tell me that they were having problems. In the evening, we talked again and I promised to involve the extended family in helping them resolve their issues. We had agreed to meet but had not set the date.” 

On December 4, Ndung’u, who lives in Nairobi, received a call from his elder sister asking him to rush to Ngong Police Station.

“I found my sister’s body inside a police (Toyota) Landcruiser at the station. The officers were making a report of the incident. Her body was later booked at the City Mortuary,” he recalled.

He later learnt from eyewitnesses that his sister had been stabbed by her husband in broad daylight. 

They said they saw Nyaga quarrelling with his wife outside her new house a few minutes before he reached for a knife inside his gumboots and stabbed her twice in her chest. 

Neighbours rushed her to hospital but she died along the way. 

Poisoned knife

“A post-mortem examination revealed that she was stabbed both in her heart and lungs with a poisoned knife. Her husband was also found to have succumbed to excessive bleeding from his three self-inflicted stomach stab wounds and a gunshot wound on his leg,” Ndung’u told the Nation yesterday.

After stabbing his wife, Nyaga went into hiding but police caught up with him inside Kabuku forest where he had unsuccessfully attempted to commit suicide by swallowing poison. 

Nyaga was to be arraigned at the Ngong Law Courts on December 10, but he escaped, snatched a knife from a trader at a local market and stabbed himself. 

He died from the injuries as he could not receive urgent treatment as hospital services were paralysed due to the ongoing nurses’ strike.

“We entered the court premises with him, uncuffed his hands and directed him to sit on a bench as we waited for the session to begin but to our shock, he turned and sped off towards Ngong town, snatched a knife from a market woman and stabbed himself several times,” said Kajiado North Sub-county Police Commander Rashid Mohamed. 

The officers subdued him by shooting him on the leg. He fell and was rushed to Ngong Sub-county Hospital for treatment.

Due to the nurses’ strike, however, he could not get medical attention and the police rushed him to Mbagathi Hospital and later to the Kenyatta National Hospital where he died of excessive bleeding. 

The bodies are still lying at the City Mortuary ahead of their burials on Thursday and Friday.

“Nyaga will be buried at Lang’ata Cemetery while my sister will be buried at our parent’s home in Mwirigo in Gatundu North on Friday,” Ndung’u said.

Friends described Wanjiku as a hard-working woman and her husband as a calm man who played musical instruments in church and was at some point worked as a pastor’s driver.