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Brenda Bosibori

Brenda Bosibori, whose body was dumped by the road with a rope around her neck in Karagita, Naivasha.

| Pool

Naivasha woman: Suspect in my daughter’s murder called me mum

"The suspect arrested in connection with my daughter's death called me mum," said Ms Rose Nyanchama, before breaking down in tears.

Her daughter Brenda Bosibori was found murdered on Sunday morning, her body dumped by the road, with a rope around her neck in Karagita, Naivasha.

When Nation.Africa found Ms Nyanchama at her rented house in the sprawling Karagita neighbourhood, she was inconsolable ... breaking into incessant sobs as relatives and friends comforted her.

In obvious anguish and speaking in halting sentences, Ms Nyanchama, a flower grader, recounted her last moment with her second-born child on Saturday morning as she left for work.

"It was around 5am when I woke my daughter and asked her to close the door. She asked me to give her Sh10 for breakfast, which I did," she added.

Then the mother went about her daily routine, looking forward to a reunion with her family, including 16-year-old Brenda. It was not to be.

"When I came home in the evening, I found my son cursing ... Mum, Brenda amenitesa sana leo ... hata hakunipikia lunch (Mum, Brenda really starved me today, she didn't even make lunch for me)," she recalled.

Brenda Bosibori

Brenda Bosibori who was found strangled and dumped in Karagita, Naivasha.

Photo credit: Pool

"My son was hungry and I got really angry," said Ms Nyanchama. 

Angrily, she inquired about Brenda’s whereabouts, but nobody knew. Then the suspect returned the keys to the house, saying Brenda had given them to him.

"At the time, I did not suspect anything was wrong. The suspect, a family friend, was as cool as a cucumber," she recalled.

The suspect, a 19-year-old Form Four student at a local secondary school, had gone to Brenda's house earlier in the day to help with chores, including washing the dishes.

The two left the house together and that was the last time Brenda was seen alive.

"When I told the suspect that my daughter was missing, he seemed shocked and offered to help with the search. I had met him outside the gate," she said.

For nearly six hours, Ms Nyanchama, accompanied by the suspect and other people, combed the neighbourhood in search of her daughter, to no avail.

"Around midnight, the suspect said, 'Mummy, just go home and relax ... we will continue the search tomorrow’," she said.

"He took us on a wild goose chase while my daughter was lying cold in his bed ... it is heart-breaking ... I used to help him buy books worth Sh200 sometimes ... we considered him one of our own," said the grieving mother. 

Unaware that her daughter had been killed, Ms Nyanchama woke up the next day to start her day. Then she received a phone call from a friend at 9am.

"I was told that my daughter had been found, but the caller did not tell me that she was dead. I was given permission not to go to work. What followed was heart-breaking," she said.

She learned of her daughter's death after arriving at the Naivasha police station. She later went to the mortuary to view the body. She is still in pain, unable to come to terms with the tragedy.

On Sunday night, the suspect went to the police to report the murder as detectives prepared to gather details on the killing.

"A clearly disturbed young man strolled into the reporting office and said he wanted to report a murder that he was privy to,” said an officer investigating the matter.

Mentally disturbed

The officers in the report office were taken aback, unsure whether the teenager realised the consequences of his own confession, before they locked him up.

"We initially thought he was mentally disturbed ... he wanted to be locked up," the officer added.

"We are yet to verify his claims, but it was definitely a case of love gone sour," said Naivasha Deputy Police Commissioner Samuel Kiplong, who said the suspect had allegedly lent Brenda Sh2,000.

He said the man picked up the victim from her home around 10am on Saturday and stayed with her for almost four hours before allegedly strangling her with an electric wire after a disagreement.

"He confessed that he was restless after the incident, hence his decision to surrender," he added.

Police said the suspect took the body more than 100 metres from his family's homestead before leaving it near a garbage dump.

Grief-stricken family and friends flocked to the flower worker's home to condole with her.

The killing occurred in the same town where another student was killed by a teenage admirer after she rejected his sexual advances.