NAIROBI, Kenya, Apr 2-Two men who killed their spouses in separate incidents last week have been arrested as the country grapples with an increase in intimate partner killings.
According to the police, most of these killings and violence are perpetrated by men who are in family or intimate partner relationships.
The first suspect, Harisson Mutisya, had on March 25 hacked his wife Faith Mueni to death in Kalama Machakos County on suspicion of infidelity before he escaped.
The second suspect, Sebastian Kamande, poisoned his wife Rahab Gathoni and her friend Abigael Gathoni, before fleeing their Dandora home on Tuesday.
Detectives from the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) arrested Kamande 28, around Sagana area as he was travelling back to Nairobi from where he had been hiding.
Kamande had poisoned the wife and her friend before escaping, leaving their bodies sprawled on the floor.
The suspect’s brother, Benard Mungai Kamande, told the police that he received a call that fateful day from his brother who told him to rush to his house within Dandora phase 1.
He only told him that there was a problem and feared that the house could be burgled. He rushed to the house and found the two lying in a mattress in the living room, with blood oozing from their mouths and ears
Detectives drawn from the Crime Research and Intelligence Bureau (CRIB), DCI Nairobi Regional headquarters launched investigations and initially traced him in Dandora.
He however escaped the dragnet.
Detectives later traced him in Embu abut as they headed there, he got wind and started travelling back to Nairobi. He was however arrested from the vehicle he had boarded to Nairobi.
Preliminary investigations indicate that the couple had marital disagreements and had last weekend travelled to the man’s parents in Kakuzi, Murang’a County, in a bid to salvage their union.
“But when they returned to their home in Dandora, the man’s wife who had since received a visitor declined to cook, prompting the disgruntled husband to venture into the kitchen,” the DCI said.
After preparing rice and beef, the man laced it with an unspecified poison and served the two women before fleeing.
He is expected to be charged in court with murder next week.
The other suspect, Mutisya who had been on the run since he killed his wife last Friday, was also arrested Sunday morning after his attempts to commit suicide failed to materialize.
Mutisya, 45, killed his wife Faith Mueni, 34 in cold blood, by hacking her into pieces using a machete on suspicion of infidelity.
According to the DCI, preliminary investigations indicate that on the fateful day, attacked his wife when she was deep asleep as their 4-year-old daughter slept in an adjacent room.
He then fled from home in the family car and drove all the way to Emali where he abandoned the car.
He travelled back towards Nairobi and on Friday night, he booked himself at a guest house in Mlolongo.
On sensing that detectives had tracked him down, he swallowed poison but did not die immediately.
The detectives found him was found on the floor of the room gasping for breath, while foaming from the mouth and nose and was immediately rushed to Kitengela Level IV Hospital.
According the National Crime Research Centre, majority of those killed by their intimate partner were married and living together with the person who attacked them.
Stabbing was the most common mode of killing, according to a report titled Masculinity and Intimate Partner Violence in Kenya.
Prior to these alarming statistics it was already recognised that intimate partner violence (IPV) is common and normalised affecting 4 out of 10 women in Kenya, according to the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS).
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