Residents of Maguguni in Thika East woke up to the stench of two decomposing bodies of young lovers locked up in a single-room house.

The bodies were identified as those of Timothy Ndirangu, 23, a welder, and 27-year-old Grace Wanjiru, a teacher at Wapa Primary School.

Thika East Police Commander Julius Kyumbule said preliminary investigations showed that Mr Ndirangu strangled Ms Wanjiru before hanging himself using an electrical cable at her house.

Perennial problems

Mr Ndirangu’s parents said the two lovers had been having problems in the past one week.

“On Monday, we received information that our son was locked up at Ngoliba Police Station over some misunderstanding he had with a woman, and we went to check on him,” said Mr James Musyoka, his father.

Mr Musyoka recalled that when he arrived at the police station and asked his son what the matter was, he instead asked him who had told him of his detention.

“I told him what I knew and he asked me not to worry because the person who had had him locked up was coming to set him free,” said Mr Musyoka.

True to his words, Mr Ndirangu was set free, and in the presence of his parents, the lovers agreed to end their relationship.

Rejection

“That was the first time I was seeing this other woman. I had only known his legitimate wife, who lives with him in my compound with their two children,” said Mr Musyoka.

After that incident, Mr Ndirangu went home to his wife in the evening.

“While at home, the woman kept calling my son, telling him that she would look for another man with whom to have children because he had rejected her.''

“Every time she called, my son would give his wife the phone and ask her to tell her (Wanjiru) to stop destroying their marriage,” said Mr Ndirangu’s mother Priscillah Njeri.