Woman and son found murdered

A young woman and her two-year-old son were brutally murdered in Karen on Monday afternoon, two weeks after a man she was living with vanished.

He disappeared with the couple’s three-week old daughter.

The bodies of 17-year-old Susan Kalondu and her son, Jesse Kinyua, were found by a herder in Ngong forest near Karen Plains.

The boy was still strapped to his mother’s back and police say she must have been attacked while carrying him piggyback.

Susan had been living with a man identified as Mr Stephen Awuor.

Lang’ata police chief Elija Maina said at the scene was a piece of black cloth which police suspect might have been used to strangle the mother and child.

“The bodies were fresh but had bruises on the neck,” Mr Maina said.

Detectives under Langata Directorate of Criminal Investigations boss Mbogo Mwaura are investigating the killings, he said.

The detectives yesterday recorded statements from Ms Kalondu’s mother, Ms Elizabeth Kanini, and her two brothers, Mr Philip Kaleli and Mr Patrick Kimeu.

Mr Alex Naibei, the herder who discovered the bodies, also recorded a statement with the police yesterday.

He told Nation he was herding his cattle when he came across the two bodies. “I recognised the woman and since I knew her family, I informed them and also reported at Karen police station,” he said.

Ms Kalondu was killed a couple of weeks after she separated from Mr Awuor.

By Tuesday evening, police had not traced the man, who is said to have disappeared with the couple’s three-week-old baby daughter.

Ms Kanini told Nation that on Monday morning she left Ms Kalondu and her son asleep in their house.

“She was to join me later at a construction site at Karen Plains where I am a cook but she did not turn up. At around 4.30pm, my son called and told me her body and that of her son had been found in the forest,” she said.

In her statement to the police, Ms Kanini said her daughter and her lover had only lived together for three months but separated two weeks ago.  “They split up after he tried to burn her and my grandson,” she said.

Ms Kanini said although she did not know much about Mr Awuor, she had met him on several occasions as they worked in the same area.

“I do not know where the man lives nor any of his relatives. Only my daughter knew those details,” she said.

The bodies of Ms Kalondu and her son were taken City Mortuary for a postmortem examination today.

Though the disappearance of Mr Awuor and the baby was reported to the police immediately, their whereabouts had not been established by yesterday evening.

Ms Kalondu is said to have travelled to western Kenya in search of the baby.