Police officer takes poison after killing 40-year-old girlfriend, suicide note found

By Patrick Mutisya

Bodies of a police officer from Makutano Sub-Location in Mwala, Machakos County and that of his girlfriend were on Wednesday evening (March 18) found in the cop’s house.

The police officer’s mother, Esther Kaloki, had gone to knock on the door of his son’s house in Uamani Village, when she realised a foul smell was emanating from the house and the door was locked from the inside.

Kaloki informed the area chief, who alerted police at Masii post.

The law enforcement officers arrived at the scene and broke down the cop’s door.

It was then that they discovered the bodies of Constable Jeminsta Mutua, 40, and that of his lover, Joyce Kaswii Muange, also 40, lying on the floor.

Constable Mutua of police service number 74617 was attached to Nyakianga Police Station in Murang’a County.

At the scene, police found a blood-stained panga, a rope, two empty bottles of pesticides and a suicide note.

“Joyce Muange appeared to have been strangled,” says a police report filed at Masii Police Station.

“The mouth of the deceased police officer had foam,” adds the report.

Makutano Location chief Simon Kiminza told K24 Digital that the couple was last seen together in public on Sunday, March 15.

“Mutua had come home after he was suspended from work on disciplinary grounds,” said Kiminza.

“On Sunday, he and his lover were seen together at Makutano Market. The following day, which was a Monday, it was only Mutua who was seen in public, and he appeared psychologically disturbed. It is most likely he had killed the woman he was cohabiting with on Sunday.

“No one suspected he had committed any crime until Wednesday, when Mutua’s mother went to knock on his door after she failed to see him for over two days. It was then that his body and that of the woman he was cohabiting with were found,” added Kiminza.

“The woman’s body had bruises in the face and cut wounds in other parts of her body.”

According to the chief, the couple had, of late, been embroiled in unending relationship dispute.

Kiminza said in the suicide note — believed to have been written by Mutua — the deceased directed that all the property he had, be inherited by his two children and that his father should be the next of kin to benefit from any monies that the National Police Service will give to his family following his death.

The bodies of Mutua and his girlfriend were taken to the Machakos Level 5 Hospital morgue.