Police give update on fugitive who stabbed Sharon Cate 10 times at Kayole Junction
A cloud of grief hangs over Kayole Junction in Nairobi, after 40-year-old Catherine Wanjiru – better known by friends as Sharon Cate – was found brutally murdered in her own home at the hands of her boyfriend.
Cate’s tragic end unfolded on the night of Friday, May 9, 2025.
Her lifeless body was discovered with multiple stab wounds – in the head, neck, and arms – after what police have described as a gruesome and calculated killing.
The main suspect? Her boyfriend of two years, 31-year-old Samuel Mathenge, who is now on the run.
According to investigators, the couple had spent the evening together at Cate’s residence at Kayole Junction, along Kangundo Road.
Cate’s 11-year-old son was also present and became a silent witness to a horror no child should ever see.
What triggered the fatal confrontation remains unclear. But Cate’s sister, Anne Wambui, told reporters that an argument had broken out, escalating to physical violence.
According to Wambui, the altercation saw Mathenge slap Cate several times. That’s when Cate sent her son downstairs to tell the guard that things weren’t okay.
But fate would play a cruel trick.
When the boy reached the building’s guard, the watchman was busy helping a tenant park and couldn’t immediately respond.
The child ran back upstairs only to find the house locked from the inside with a padlock.
The boy tried again.
He returned to the guard, who promptly tried calling Cate’s phone. To their surprise, it was picked up by Mathenge. But he gave no indication that anything was amiss.
Moments later, neighbours say they spotted a man matching Mathenge’s description exiting the building with a red Maasai shuka wrapped around his head – seemingly to conceal his face.
When the guard attempted to stop him, the man sprinted off into the darkness, vanishing into the Kayole night.
Back inside the apartment, a horrifying scene awaited.
Cate had been stabbed repeatedly. Her attacker had left behind a mobile phone and a copy of his ID – solid links pointing directly to Mathenge as a regular visitor and now prime suspect.
“Alikua amedungwa dungwa visu, visu mingi sana. Zaidi ya kumi kwa kichwa. Na uchungu ni, mwenye aliconfirm ni mtoto,” Wambui told the press on Wednesday, May 14, 2025, as the family followed up on police investigations.
Cate leaves behind two children — the youngest, her 11-year-old son in Grade 7, and an older daughter aged 22.
Kayole Sub-County Police Commander John Awouth confirmed the ongoing manhunt while speaking to the press.
“Uchunguzi inaaendelea na DCI ya Kayole. So progress report bado tunangoja their investigations na mshukiwa hajashikwa, still on the run and police are doing what is possible to arrest him,” John Awuoth told the press.
Cate’s body was moved to the Mama Lucy Kibaki Hospital mortuary, with a postmortem scheduled for Thursday.
The case has stirred outrage online and within the community, with calls for justice growing louder. As detectives pursue the suspect, one question remains at the centre of this tragedy – how could love turn so fatally violent, so quietly?
Police are urging anyone with information on Samuel Mathenge’s whereabouts to report to the nearest station immediately.
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Martin Oduor
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