Police probe woman’s death from Kasarani apartment fall
By Zadock.Aangira, March 4, 2024
Police have launched investigations into the death of a woman who allegedly fell from 10th floor of an apartment in Thome estate in Kasarani area on Saturday morning.
Detectives from the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) revisited the scene where they collected exhibits, including bloody bedsheets and recorded statements from residents plus the management of the apartment that doubles up as a residential and temporary stay apartment.
The body of Joan Mbula Nzomo, 20, was found on the ground floor of an apartment she had spent the previous night with a man identified as Lawrence Gitonga.
She was half-naked at the time the body fell off the 10th floor of the White House apartments, and was only wearing a red T-shirt when the body was recovered.
Neighbours said they heard the woman calling for help at the balcony of the house before she fell off.
Gitonga, 33, who the detectives treat as the main suspect was, however, found in the bathroom with eight stab wounds.
To establish motive
The probe seeks to establish whether she was pushed out of the room, was running away or died by suicide.
Nairobi region police commander Adamson Bungei yesterday said detectives were waiting for Gitonga to stabilise before he is grilled and his statement recorded to establish what transpired as part of the probe into the death.
“For now he is the main suspect in this incident as we investigate it. He is recuperating well and will be grilled once he is stable,” he said.
When police arrived at the scene hours after the woman had died, they realised the room she spent in, which also served as a short-stay accommodation, was locked and contacted the owner.
The owner later gave them a spare key which they used to access the house where they found Gitonga lying on the floor unconscious with several stab wounds.
He had bled profusely, which prompted the team to rush him to hospital but under watch.
Gitonga later told police she was stabbed by the woman. The room also looked disturbed, indicating that there was a fierce struggle.
The investigating officers also collected forensic evidence, personal belongings and even CCTV footage.
Police said the deceased had no wounds and a postmortem would be conducted to establish the cause of death and the nature of injuries among others.
Preliminary investigations have revealed the woman had met the man in an entertainment joint on Mirema Drive in Roysambu on Friday night.
Later, they were seen dropping off one of their friends before heading to the White House apartments and later to a bar close to the apartments where they continued drinking inside a car.
Around 3am Saturday, the two checked into the short-stay apartment they had booked. Her death brings to more than 20, the number of women killed in the last two months, according to police records.
Among the women who have been killed in the recent past are socialite Starlet Wahu Mwangi who is believed to have been murdered by John Matara.
Matara had rented a short-term apartment in the area and took Wahu, who he met on a dating site, into the house for a night out.
Another victim is Rita Waeni Muendo, who was killed at an AirBnB in Roysambu on January 13.
In another case on January 28, a man stabbed his girlfriend to death in Biafra slums Nairobi. The woman, Serah Ndunge Musyoki, 20, was found with stab wounds in her house. She was taken to Mother and Child Hospital on Yusuf Haji Avenue where she succumbed while on treatment.