Residents of Kitui Town were left in shock after a Kenya Defence Forces (KDF) soldier shot dead his supposed girlfriend on Monday before turning the gun on himself on Monday morning.
The incident prompted a brief exchange of gunfire between police and the army officer who had locked himself inside his victim’s house.
According to neighbors of the victim, the officer, 31 year-old Fredrick Mutia who is based at Mariakani 77 artillery, arrived at the woman’s house at around 7am and found her outside as she prepared to go to work.
They said the two, apparently known to each other, had a brief exchange before heading back into the woman’s house.
Soon after, a gunshot was heard inside the house before the woman was seen scampering out into a neighbour’s room while bleeding profusely from her chest.
The assailant followed his wounded victim, 24, and called out her name, demanding her to come out.
But the neighbour restrained her from going out in fear that the officer was intent on killing her.
“She then fell to the floor and succumbed to the injuries,” said the neighbor, a secondary school student.
Another neighbour, a student at Kenya Medical Training College, Kitui campus, said the two had been longtime lovers and that the officer had been a regular visitor at the slain woman’s house.
“It seems things between them went south prompting the officer to kill the woman,” he noted.
The woman worked as an attendant in one of the chemist opposite Kitui County Referral Hospital. She was said to be dating another man unknown to the killer officer.
Kitui Central OCPD Kennedy Osando said the KDF officer retreated into the woman’s house after learning that she was dead, locked himself inside and refused to heed to police orders to surrender.
The police boss said the soldier shot through the roof several times in an attempt to scare away police officers who had surrounded the house. The soldier then turned the gun on himself after sensing imminent defeat.
“We then forced the metallic door open and stormed into the house to find the soldier dead. He had killed himself with a shot though the chin,” he said.
“We have already commenced investigations into the incident to establish the circumstances leading to the deaths,” he added.
The bodies of the KDF officer and his victim were taken to Kitui County Referral Hospital mortuary.
