Detectives in Kajiado County are holding a man and his farm worker after the body of the man's 34-year-old wife was exhumed from a shallow grave on the family's farm in Entarakuet, Isinya, in a case police say unravelled after the worker confided in a friend.

The Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) identified the woman as Farida Peter Sangka. Her husband, Shon David Rabassa Kioko, and the farmhand, Burundian national Ndayishimiye Deo, are in custody as investigators try to establish how she died. Neither has been charged, and both are presumed innocent.

How the case came to light

According to the DCI account reported by Eastleigh Voice and Nairobi News, the husband allegedly called the farmhand on Saturday, October 24, and asked him to help bury his wife's body. The worker allegedly complied and then went home, as he did not live on the farm.

He later told a friend what had happened. The friend recorded a statement with detectives and urged him to go to the police. In the meantime, police say, the husband walked into Isinya Police Station on October 27, accompanied by his son, to report that his wife was missing.

The following day, October 28, the farmhand reported the matter at Kiserian Police Station, telling officers that his employer had killed the woman and instructed him to help hide the body. Detectives then visited the farm and arrested both men.

Exhumation and post-mortem

The body was exhumed in the presence of a pathologist, Ministry of Health officials and police officers, and was taken to Nairobi Funeral Home pending a post-mortem examination that is expected to establish the cause of death. Police have not disclosed any details about injuries.

The DCI said the farmhand's decision to come forward did not clear him of his alleged part in concealing the body. "Reporting crime is a civic responsibility," the directorate said, while stressing that anyone who reports an offence they were involved in must still face due process.

Grim run of shallow-grave cases

The Isinya case is the latest in a series in which women's bodies have been found buried close to home. In September, a 32-year-old man was arrested in Suna East, Migori County, after his wife's body was discovered in a shallow grave near their house, while a woman's body with suspected stab wounds was found on a farm in Ongata Rongai, also in Kajiado, in October last year.

Detectives say investigations are continuing, and the DCI has extended condolences to the woman's family.

Photos: DCI via The Star; Uluru! via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0); Kenya Police patch by Dave Conner via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 2.0). Thumbnail design: HAMASTA MEDIA.