Detectives investigating the murder of a mother and daughter in South B, Nairobi point to a property dispute as reason behind their gruesome killing in the wee hours on Monday.
Although the identity of the Toyota Prado that picked up Ms Judy Mwai and her daughter Catherine Nyaguthie from their house and dropped them off an hour later on Sunday night is yet to be ascertained, initial investigations show that property belonging to Ms Mwai’s husband could be at the centre of a conflict that ended up in the murders.
A postmortem conducted on the bodies of the deceased on Wednesday afternoon revealed that Ms Nyaguthie, 43, was hit with a blunt object on the back of her head before being strangled. Her mother, 73, was strangled.
DNA samples have been collected from the clothes the two were wearing when they were killed at their house in Golden Gate estate to help detectives find clues on who may have killed them.
Ms Mwai and her daughter were dropped off at 1am on Monday by a black Toyota Prado. According to neighbours, the two women who were very religious, rarely came home late at night.
They used their back gate to access the house as the Prado waited outside. They then left 15 minutes later and were dropped off by the same car more than an hour later at 2:30am. It is still not clear if the people they were with in the car joined them in the house, or what exactly happened.
A guard, who is mostly based at the front gate of the house, said the two had no visitors that night.
A day time security guard said his colleague who mans the gate at night told him Ms Mwai and Nyaguthie did not seem like they were in any trouble when they came in.
“From my position I can see the lights go on and off in the house. Most of the time, Ms Mwai walks around her compound sweeping and collecting leaves,” but I didn’t hear her yesterday (Monday), and I thought they went to visit mzee in hospital,” said the security guard.
Ms Mwai’s husband has for the past four years been battling a stroke that has confined him to hospital. Ms Mwai, 73, was a retired Treasury employee while her 43-year-old daughter was previously a banker with Co-operative Bank.
Before falling sick, Mr Mwai was a businessman with properties across Nairobi. His family has been disposing part of the property to foot his hospital bills.
Ms Mwai and Ms Nyaguthi were the sole occupants of house number 275 at Golden Gate estate in South B.
The two were discovered dead in their bedrooms on Monday afternoon after their mobile phones went unanswered, prompting Ms Mwai’s sister, Ms Peris Wambui, to visit their house and check if something had happened to them.
