On May 3rd 2016,the neighbors of a sleepy village called Mugoya in Embu were startled by loud screams of a woman and her children. The screams seemed emphatic and dire. They grew louder and louder… And then there were no screams again.
Quickly,a billowing sound of furious flames and wind took over… And,from their homes,the neighbors could see that one of the houses around the area was on fire.
It was around 10.00am in the morning. An odd time for a fire to engulf a house…
Quickly,the horrified neighbors sprang to action,quickly rushing to the neighboring Mugoya Police Station and others rushing towards the home to try and put off the fire that was blazing hard from one window of the house.
Upon arrival at the gate,they’d then realize,to their horror,that the gate had been locked from the inside. And that there was a car intentionally parked right by the gate,seemingly to ward off anyone from entering the compound.
Thinking fast,some male members of the neighborhood would quickly scale the concrete fence,jump into the compound and rush towards the house,to try and open it and save the dying souls inside.
All doors were closed shut. No door was opening. The windows were shut too. You couldn’t access the house either.
Again,the team had to break down the doors and crash the windows and soon enough,they were right in the burning house.
Smoke engulfed the living room. They could barely see. It was chocking and suffocating,thick and toxic. But they soldiered on,into the house and up the stairs,and in one of the rooms upstairs,which was furiously blazing away down, it would later be discovered that a distraught mother had locked herself inside,locking her two kids up with her,held them close to her chest,and then,in the most macabre act ever,set the house on fire,effectively immolating herself and her kids.
It was a painful suicide. Of a mother who sent some Boda Boda guy to go fetch petrol for her. And then,closing all doors and windows,gathered her two kids,locked herself in one of the rooms upstairs and then set the house ablaze… Her little kids screaming ” Mummy Mummy” as the powerful flames engulfed them,burning them up to ashes.
A sleepy town was jarred to consciousness. A neighborhood was shaken to it’s core. And a Country was riveted.
But what made a woman lock herself in her own house? Torch her own home and burn herself and her kids up in the gruesome process?
Two Theories.
THEORY NUMBER ONE :
According to folks in the town,which is not deficient of glorious gossip,the woman,35-year old Caroline Wanjiru, is a victim of rape. According to the story,Christine,the woman who committed a triple murder in her own home,was once raped by some unknown guys.
She was in the company of her friend who remains unnamed.
Now,after the two of the women were raped,they eventually went to Court to sue some guy they suspected was the rapist. Trouble is,they sued the wrong guy.
The man the ladies sued happened to be a watchman KNOWN to them but who,according to the story,wasn’t the guy who raped them. But they accused him anyway. And sued him.
And after a long,drawn-out Court battle,the watchman was found ‘Guilty’ and subsequently jailed for a cumulative 80 years in prison. Big mistake.
Angered,the man’s family,which hailed from Mbeere,an Embu region famous for some of the most dramatic witchcraft across Eastern Province,decided to cast a spell on the two ladies as vengeance for the jailing of their son who they believed was innocent.
The dark charms seems to have worked.
An example of a suicide note (Stock Image)
One of the two ladies committed suicide by burning herself in her own home years before Christine.
And then Christine’s turn came. And she,just like her late friend,did the same thing ; Gathered her belongings,wrote some suicide note,grabbed her kids,splashed petrol across the room and also burnt herself in her own house too. With her two kids,8-year old Grace Ashley Murugi and 3-year old Paul Macharia tightly clasped in her arms.
It’s been suggested that the lady was a victim of a Court ruling gone awry. And a terrible terrible witchcraft act that finally overpowered her,muddled her mind and led her to her gory death…To a grotesque ending of life. And of a family.
THEORY TWO:
Another section of the town,a town that is renowned for sleaze and slander, has a different angle to the whole fiasco.
Apparently,the late Christine’s hubby,Mr Charles Mugendi,who was a Cooperative Bank employee at Siakago,a dusty town away from Embu,is said to have been having a secret affair with some other woman from the same Mbeere region.
Remember I told you,Mbeere is a region notorious for some of the most powerful black witchcraft practises across the Embu expanse. It’s a dreaded region to live in.
Now,according to the street gossip,the lady’s hubby was seeing some other woman from that region. And that woman didn’t appreciate the fact that her man was actually married with two kids.
The man had intended to introduce the other woman as his wife Number Two. But the original wife (the one who committed suicide) was vehemently opposed to the idea.
The marriage eventually did go through a rough patch. But the man remained yoked and in love with the other Mbeere woman… Much to the chagrin of his wife,the mother of his two kids,a boy and a girl.
It is further claimed that,after realizing that the original wife was never going to allow her to join the family as the second wife,the other woman decided to visit some of the most notorious witch-doctors in the dry,dirty village. And she found them.
Quickly,the original wife was put under a powerful,evil charm. And her goose was cooked.
Unable to think straight,her mind possessed by foreign demons,Christine would run mad on the fateful morning of May 3rd.
She’d then gather the two kids,douse the house in petrol, block the main gate using her car, leave a two-page suicide note in the car,run back to the house,gather some four cooking gas cylinders,put them in one of the upper rooms,close all the doors and windows, enter the room with her kids,hold them right to the chest and then light a match,start a fire and throw herself to the ground,to burn to death. As her kids kept screaming and screaming.
It was a macabre act. An act straight from hell. And Embu people are refusing to believe that the woman acted on her own.
Everyone who knew her says she’s was a sober woman. A calm woman. Wasn’t distressed,dramatic,temperamental or crazed. She never acted wild. Or seemed so.
Everyone,from taxi drivers to Boda Boda riders,from her neighbors to her workmates are saying the same thing,” Christine alirogwa… Aliwekewa uchawi mbaya sana… Ya Mbeere… Uchawi yenye ilimtoa wazimu… Halafu ikamuua… Mama hawezi jichoma na achome watoto wake… Hakuna Mama anaweza fanya hivo… ”
Christine’s funeral was yesterday. And her home remains unoccupied,her husband remains in a clinical shock,and the effects of the Burning room could still be seen by any passerby who peeped into the doomed compound.
Embu is still reeling from this tragedy. The town can’t talk of anything else. But the fiery death of Christine and her two kids. In a closed room engulfed in fire.
Tragic.
Aftermath photos of the house. (Circled region is the window and room in which the murders happened)
PS: None of the two theories could be authoritatively corroborated. And so,they remain street gossip and should be treated as such.
