The family of 44-year-old Mercy Wamaitha in Murang'a County is yet to come to terms with the circumstances of her killing inside a man's village cubicle, with her blood drained into a bucket.
The body was retrieved from the house on March 8, 2026, in Kiamakumi village in Maragua constituency. Such was the horrific scene inside the tiny mud-walled room that neighbours linked it to the activities of a cult.
Even the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) officers from the Murang'a South Sub-County Security Committee appeared shocked by the finding to the point that witnesses said they left behind the bucket that contained the blood.
It took frantic calls to Murang'a South Deputy County Commissioner Bernard Odinoh to send his officers back to the scene to take away the blood that had already decomposed for four days.
The discovery of the body marked the start of investigations to unravel how the woman had ended up dead in the house.
Mercy Wamaitha, 44, was discovered dead in Murang'a County on March 8, 2026. Her blood had been drained into a bucket at Kiamakumi village.
Photo credit: Pool | Nation
According to a preliminary investigation report provided by Murang'a County police boss Kemboi Kimaiyo, the woman most likely died in a love triangle.
"The woman is profiled to be from Iganjo village in Kamahuha ward and dropped out of Class Five to get married in Kianjiru-ini village in neighbouring Maragua constituency, a distance of about 25 kilometres," the report reads in part.
It states that the woman had been married to a man identified as Mr Macharia wa Njeri, with whom they had six children aged between five years and 25 years.
But over the past three years, there have been challenges in their marriage, and Ms Wamaitha has often left the matrimonial home.
She started seeking employment as a house help in various towns, but in the process, reportedly got into a love affair. Her body was found in the house belonging to Mr Justus Kamau, who is now a suspect and has been presented in court as police seek more time for investigation.
"For the past three years, I have gone back for her about three times from that house (where the house was found). She had left my house three days prior to her death and I was planning to go for her. I'm sad and she remains my love," he said.
He said he had long since accepted that he would concentrate on bringing up their children without minding too much about what he described as his wife’s erratic behaviour.
Tracing Ms Wamaitha's last moments, the investigative report indicates that she was an on-and-off visitor to the house where her body was found.
"In this fateful visit, she was only three days into her stay and their routine was to seek casual jobs in the village, get paid in the afternoon, and then both report to a nearby shopping centre for a liquor-drinking session before retiring to the cubicle late in the night," the police report states.
The house in Kiamakumi village where Mercy Wamaitha was found dead on March 8, 2026, with her blood drained into a bucket.
Photo credit: Mwangi Muiruri | Nation
On the night of March 7, 2026, the suspect’s grandmother, Beatrice Wangui,75, told Nation that the two took a plate of ugali and beans from her kitchen.
"I moved out of my house and found several neighbours already present outside the house. Also present was our Ichagaki MCA Mr Hillary Muigai. All looked very agitated. Someone whispered in my ear that Ms Wamaitha was dead inside the house," the old woman narrated with tears rolling down her cheeks.
Police from Maragua Police Station were called to the scene, and documentation of the scene started.
The room was photographed by scene-of-crime detectives showing an unkempt bed, the untouched ugali-and-beans meal placed on a wobbly wooden structure, with some plastic water containers and assorted items lying around.
What stood out was the bucket containing blood. There was more blood on the earthen floor, with a blood-stained knife also at the scene.
Addressing the curious neighbours at the scene, the MCA said he had been called to help after the suspect came to his compound.
"He wanted me to help take Wamaitha to the hospital. But at the scene, I found that she was still and cold. I decided not to get involved and instead helped wake the neighbours to come and witness what I had found," he said.
Police removed Wamaitha's body to the Murang'a County Funeral Home, and investigations into the death began.
A post-mortem was conducted on the body on March 12, 2026, and the report shows Ms Wamaitha had five stab wounds, four on her right thigh and one on her right palm.
The report states that the wounds on her thigh were closely spaced and were between three and six inches deep.
"The four sharp stab wounds ranging from 6 to 3 inches deep saw two striking the femoral artery leading to acute blood loss. The artery that was ruptured carried oxygenated blood from the heart to the leg. She excessively bled leading to heart failure and her death," the report states.
The next line of investigations is now centred on who exactly inflicted the fatal wounds on Wamaitha's thigh.
Murang'a South Sub-County police boss Ms Charity Karimi said Mr Kamau, the owner of the house, has since been arrested and custodial orders granted by the court to hold him until April 2, 2026, during which period investigators hope to resolve the mystery.
"The suspect has told us that the deceased stabbed herself and it was when he was unable to stop her that he rushed to call the MCA to come and help," she said.
Ms Karimi said the investigators will test the claim to put into the right perspective whether it was possible for Ms Wamaitha to stab herself so severely and also drain her blood into a bucket.
She added that investigators will also get more statements from eyewitnesses at the scene to understand the time it took for Mr Kamau to call Mr Muigai, the MCA, and find Wamaitha still and cold.
She said it is after those questions are answered that it will be determined whether she committed suicide or was murdered.
"We have also secured the blood-stained knife that we recovered from the scene, whose fingerprint analysis will clear doubts on whose hands it was last," she said.
Ms Wamaitha's father, Mr Joseph Mwaniki Njuguna, 70, told Nation that all he wants is justice for his daughter's death.
He said she was the second-born in a family of seven, but being a mother of six children, there has never been any formal marriage.
"No man has ever come to my homestead to introduce himself as Wamaitha's husband. I knew she was also friends with the man in whose house she was found dead, but not in a traditionally or conventionally recognised union," he said.
