Middle-aged lady whose body was found stashed in a suitcase identified
The middle-aged lady whose body was found stashed in a suitcase near the GSU barracks in Kimbo, Kiambu County has been identified as Esther Wambui.
Wambui, aged 18-years-old, was identified as a waitress who worked at a local eatery near Total Energies Petrol Station in Ruiru.
Her body was identified by her boyfriend, Joseph Ngige, who she had been living with in the area.
On the day she died, Ngige who works at a local petrol station, had escorted her to a junction, about a kilometre away from her workplace.
According to the police, the woman was waylaid and killed as she walked to her workplace in the morning on Monday.
Wambui had been stashed in the suitcase naked, with her hands tied at the back and her legs bound together.
“The body had been wrapped in a nylon sack and stashed in a black suitcase. Her hands were tied at the back, while her legs were bound together using a manila rope. A nylon cord suspected to have been used in her strangulation was tied around her neck,” read a police report.
On Tuesday, her partner filed a missing person’s report at the Juja Police Station where he was advised to check whether the body of the woman that was moved to City Mortuary the previous night was that of his lover.
When he arrived at the City Mortuary, he was taken to where Wambui’s body had been preserved and identified it.
Police had taken Wambui’s body to the facility on Monday night after collecting it from the scene where it had been dumped.
“The scene was processed by Thika police command and the body moved to City Mortuary awaiting positive identification and autopsy,” read police report.
Detectives handling the case said they suspect the woman was confronted by her killers, who probably raped her and decided to kill her.
They believe the messages written on her body was meant to distract investigations.
Preliminary police findings show her chest and both palms of her hands had some writings inscribed warning that “someone’s husband is poisonous” (“bwana ya mtu ni sumu.”).
Detectives from the Directorate of Criminal Investigations in Ruiru have visited the house where the woman lived and the scene where the body was found.
Ruiru head of DCI Justus Ombati said the woman might have been killed elsewhere and dumped alongside the perimeter wall of the heavily guarded GSU Recce Squad station.
The motive of the murder is yet to be known, police said.
