Why Kirinyaga man killed his girlfriend, a police officer, and then committed s*****e

By Richard Mugo in Kirinyaga County

Forty-year-old Samwel Kiama suspected that his 35-year-old lover, Caroline Mbote, a police officer attached to Kianyaga Police Station in Kirinyaga County, was cheating on him, resulting in him killing her before committing suicide, K24 Digital has learnt.

Kiama allegedly bludgeoned Mbote to death with a blunt object on Thursday night, police said.

Mbote failed to report to work on Friday, December 20, prompting her colleague, Constable Rose Chekemoi Gichugi, to look for her [Mbote] at her house located 500 meters from the Kianyaga police post.

Gichugi knocked on Mbote’s door at 10am Friday, but she did not receive any response.

Upon looking through Mbote’s window, she saw her body lying on the bed.

Gichugi, thereafter, went and narrated to the Kianyaga deputy OCS, Inspector Mumbua, what she had seen.

Mumbua, Gichugi and other police officers went to the scene, where they broke down Mbote’s door and confirmed that she was already dead. Her boyfriend, Kiama, on the other hand, was hanging lifeless from a shawl tied to the rafters in the living room.

“Mbote had an injury in the head with blood splattered all over her face. It is suspected she was hit with a blunt object,” said a police report filed at the Kianyaga post.

Kiama left behind a suicide note, whose content was not immediately revealed to the public.

K24 Digital has, however, received details of the letter.

In the note, Kiama, who worked as an attendant at a butcher’s shop in Kianyaga, said he was previously married, and that his union with his former wife ended acrimoniously, resulting in a split that was okayed by the courts a few years ago.

Kiama further said that during the course of his work, Mbote would routinely buy meat from his shop, and a friendship and subsequent relationship blossomed between them.

Kiama said he invested the little property that he got from his previous marriage following the divorce, and had vowed to “create wealth with Mbote in the picture”.

Kiama further said that he had discovered that Mbote was cheating on him with a man from Kirinyaga, and warned her against the said-affair. 

“The 40-year-old said in the note that he was extremely hurting to see that the woman he loved wholeheartedly was playing games with him. In the letter, Kiama further stated that he could not live with the fact that he was sharing Mbote with another man. He said he believed the best solution was to kill her, and then kill himself too,” said a well-placed source, who is among the DCI detectives investigating the apparent murder-suicide.

Neighbours said they heard Kiama and Mbote arguing on Thursday night, before the noise emanating from their house faded instantly.

Kiama is said to have arrived home in the evening after submitting the day’s earnings to the business owner identified as Charles Kamau.

Shortly after arriving home, he allegedly got into a scuffle with his partner, whom he allegedly bludgeoned several times in the face, chest and other parts of the body.

Kiama, thereafter, reached for a Maasai shuka, tied it to the rafters and hanged himself, police said.

The deaths came as a shock to neighbours, who described the couple’s relationship as one that was “filled with peace”.

Winfred Nyambura, a next-door neighbour, said Kiama separated from his first wife, and his relationship with Mbote was his second serious union.

“He has a son from his previous marriage. Sammy (Kiama) and Carol (Mbote) never lived with the son, but he rented a house and hired a nanny to take care of the boy. For the time I knew him, he was a really good man, who spoke less. I am shocked that he killed his spouse and thereafter committed suicide,” said Nyambura.

Kirinyaga County Commander Leah Kithei confirmed the incident, saying police have launched investigations into the apparent murder-suicide.

The two bodies were taken to Kibugi Funeral Home in Kutus Town.