Mueni Mwalimu, the mother of two who was found murdered in Nakuru.
Panic has gripped residents of Rongai and Bahati constituencies following a spate of killings targeting women and girls.
In Bahati, a Form Two student, Beauty Njeri, was last month defiled and murdered on her way to school.
In Rongai, the two women and a five-year-old girl were similarly killed and their bodies were dumped in a maize farm.
Who is killing women and girls? Is there a criminal gang targeting women?
These are the questions that residents are grappling with.
On July 15, five-year-old Alice Ayuma Blessing was defiled, murdered and body dumped in a maize farm a few meters from their home.
Weeks later, a young boy who was hunting birds in the field stumbled upon her body and alerted locals.
On Wednesday last week, the body of Ms Florence Mueni Mwalimu, 34, an employee of Cooperative Bank Nakuru branch, was found dumped in a maize farm not too far from her home in Kalyet village in Rongai. She had been decapitated and her thumbs severed.
She also had deep stab wounds on the face and a mutilated ear. Locals informed the area assistant chief who reported the matter at Olrongai Police Post.
A post-mortem exam report later detailed how, based on the damage and signs of struggle, her ear and thumbs must have been chopped off while she was still alive.
Ms Mueni is said to have reported to work as usual on Tuesday last week.
But, two hours after clocking in, she walked into the manager’s office and asked for the day off as she needed to rush her sick child to hospital.
She was given permission to go home.
Ms Mueni is said to have packed her belongings and left the bank. That was the last time she was seen alive.
According to Mueni’s husband, Erick Mureithi, he received a phone call from his 11-year-old son on Tuesday at 10pm informing him that she had not arrived home.
He said that he tried calling her phone but it had been switched off.
He later called Mueni's mother who told him that they last spoke on Tuesday at 11am after she called to inquire about her brother who had been admitted to hospital.
Restless, Mureithi said he informed the area chief that his wife was missing, but he advised waiting till morning and see if she would have returned.
Still worried, he says, he travelled from Kisii on Wednesday and proceeded to the bank to inquire about his wife's whereabouts.
Olrongai Police Post
The bank manager said she had left the office early. However, at 2pm, he received a phone call from the area chief requesting him to report to Olrongai Police Post.
He was later taken to the scene where he confirmed the worst.
According to Mureithi, his wife of 12 years had not expressed any fears that her life was in danger.
She had not quarreled with any of her colleagues either, the husband went on to say.
He described her as a loving, hard-working woman who lived a quiet, simple life.
According to Rongai Sub-county Directorate of Criminal Investigations officer Donnata Otieno, detectives managed to find her handbag and documents which had been scattered all over at the scene.
Her mobile phone was missing. The crime scene was undisturbed.
There were no blood stains, meaning she was killed elsewhere and her body dumped at the scene.
A day after Mueni’s body was found, residents of Baraka Estate stumbled upon the body of a woman in a maize farm next to the railway line.
They alerted officers at Baraka Police Post.
The body was later identified as that of Vella Moraa, 28, a resident of Mustard Seeds Estate, who had been reported missing a day before.
Stab wounds
Her body was found 500 meters from her home with stab wounds.
Her husband, Elisha Otieno, 30, told the police that his wife, a food vendor, left home on Wednesday for her business within Baraka Estate but didn't return home, worrying her family.
Mr Otieno told detectives that he tried to call his wife, through her Safaricom number but it was switched off while the Airtel line was going through but there was no response.
However, on Thursday, Mr Otieno called again only for the phone to be picked up by an unknown person who informed him that his wife was dead and even directed him where the body was lying.
Mr Otieno rushed to the scene only to find his wife’s lifeless body lying on the ground naked. He reported the matter at Baraka Police Post.
Preliminary investigations established that Moraa had been raped and stabbed multiple times on the head and face.
Detectives are still on the manhunt for the killers of 16-year old Beauty Njoki, who was murdered last month.
The Form Two student at St John Secondary School in Bahati was on June 4 brutally killed on her way to school around 5:30am and her body dumped in a thicket.
The incidents have left residents of Rongai and Bahati sub-counties living in fear with no single arrest having been made.
"Security officers should work to ensure that the killers are arrested," Ms Caroline Cherop said.
Ms Maryanne Mwangi, a resident of Soilo and a neighbour of the murdered student, called on the police to intensify patrols especially during the night.
“We normally opt to cross the railway line since it is shorter. The attackers are using the thick foliage of the maze crops to hide now that farmers have not harvested their maize,” she said.
