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Woman stayed with son’s corpse for 5 days, say cops

Friday, October 25th, 2019 03:12 | By
Kifaru Apartments house in South B.

A lecturer at the University of Nairobi’s School of Nursing kept the body of her son in her house for five days hoping he would resurrect. 

Anna Hotannah Khahugan, who until yesterday maintained that the boy was not dead but under demonic attack, was arrested on Wednesday night after the body was found in their Kifaru Apartments house in South B.

Detectives from the Makadara Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) yesterday said the suspect would be subjected to mental check up today after her statement and explanation were found to be incoherent.

The lecturer admitted that she could feel the foul smell in the house from her decomposing son but was “fighting a spiritual war” and still remained optimistic that the son would one day “wake up”.

She was staying with her son alone at the apartments where they had stayed for over five years, police said. 

The suspect said her son “stopped breathing” on Saturday at 8.30am.

Nairobi police commander Philip Ndolo yesterday said investigations had been launched to establish the cause of the mysterious death.

“The body was found inside the house and we want to establish why the mother never reported to the police. It is the neighbours and the caretaker who reported after noticing the foul smell,” he said.

The apartment caretaker Stephen Mwangi said he had not seen the two for about four days and on Wednesday evening he noticed that there was foul odour emanating from the house on the sixth floor.

This prompted him to check through the window and he reported that he saw a body wrapped in a blanket lying in the sitting room, and informed the police.  

“I knocked the door but nobody opened. I decided to call and I could hear the phone ringing but no one answered it. I then decided to peep through the window which was not locked and I saw the body wrapped in a brown blanket with yellow stripes,” he said. 

Break door

Detectives from the Makadara DCI visited the scene but found the house locked from inside. When the door knocks went unanswered, they decided to break the door and found the body of Emmanuel Solomon Inyama, 13, lying on the floor. The body had started decomposing and police suspect it had been lying there for at least four days.

On searching the house, the mother was found sitting on the floor inside the kitchen. She was arrested and interrogated briefly at the scene before being taken to the station where her detailed statement was recorded. 

“We sensed something was wrong when she insisted on seeing and talking to her son who she said had been brought to the station,” a detective told PeopleDaily.

After the interrogation they decided to subject her to mental examination.

The suspect said she had not been in close contact with her family members since 2017 and insinuated that her problems were linked to her former husband and a sister-in-law.

She told detectives that she transferred her son, who was in Class 7, from Riara School and had resorted to private home tuition. Without giving details, the suspect said some of the issues she had with her former husband had to do with the deceased son.

The caretaker said that he had not seen the boy for the last seven months. 

“I had not seen the boy for several months. The tenant had a house help who left late last year and since then she has been staying with the son only,” Mwangi said.  Some relatives told police the suspect had lately shown signs of depression and withdrawal.

“She used to be a very jovial and talkative woman but changed in the last two months and would hardly talk to people,” said Mwangi.

Elsewhere, in Isebania, Migori, police arrested a guardian who beat a Class 8 pupil to death for arriving home late. Sophia Kwamboka, a pupil at Tagare Primary School, reportedly went back home late and this infuriated her guardian, identified by police as Linet Biyaki. 

The victim was rushed to the hospital where she was pronounced dead on arrival.

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