Police now say dead teacher was suspect in torture case

Police say preliminary investigations into the murder of a primary school teacher in Kitui have established that the killing had nothing to do with poor exam results as earlier claimed.

Fresh details have emerged that before she met her death, Daisy Mbathe Mbaluka, whose murder prompted the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) to withdraw teachers from the Ndooni Primary School due to safety concerns, was being sought by police over torture and extortion offenses.

MOTIVE

Police have so far ruled out the possibility of parents’ fury over examination failure at the school she taught as the motive of the cold blooded murder and were pursuing leads that the teacher may have been involved in an extortion ring.

According to Mutito police boss Consaga Malasi, a report was made at Endau Police Station by a 30-year-old man last week, who alleged that he was abducted and tortured inside the teacher’s house in Makuka village on New Year’s Eve.

Mr Malasi told the Nation that the plaintiff, identified as Mutiso Mulwa, recorded a statement on January 2, complaining that the teacher lured him to her house where he was tortured for hours by a group of men.

Mr Mulwa who is undergoing treatment at the Kenyatta National Hospital for injuries sustained in the ordeal, made the report only four days before the teacher was ambushed by angry men who hacked her to death before setting her body on fire.

“We were actually looking for the teacher. The case was booked under reference number OB/17/02/01/2020 at Endau Police Station and Mbathe and other suspects involved in torturing Mr Mulwa were about to be arrested” said the police boss.

Mr Mulwa told police that the teacher asked him to help in repairing her home solar electrical system ahead of New Year but upon entering her house he was shocked when several men joined them and started beating him up.

The men who were accusing him of having an affair with the teacher pushed him towards Mbathe’s bedroom and suddenly tied his hands against her bed to craft a narrative that they had caught him red handed.

In his statement, the complainant told police that the attackers held him captive from 8am to 4pm and demanded money for him to secure his freedom. He said Mbathe who had lured him to the house never restrained them from torturing him.

Mr Mulwa suffered serious head, chest and back injuries.

The police boss said detectives were pursuing revenge as a possible motive of the murder and not parent’s fury over poor exam results as earlier reported.

“There was no way parents whose children had already completed school last year after sitting for their KCPE exams would single out Mbathe for attack yet she wasn’t school’s head teacher or the deputy” said Mr Malasi.

He said the teacher was killed by people who decided to take law into their own hands, perhaps enraged by the torture and extortion crimes perpetrated in her house.

TWO SUSPECTS

“Two suspects are in custody and the case has been handed over to homicide detectives from DCI headquarters Nairobi, who are pursuing three other suspects believed to have participated in the killing” said Mr Malasi.

The revelations suggest that TSC acted on wrong information and non-existent security fears while withdrawing teaching staff from the school because the local community did not have any issues with school administration.

The police version was collaborated by the teacher’s husband Mr Mbindi Ndolo, who said he was not surprised by the turn of events and that he had received numerous complaints of people tortured in his home.

The man who works in Nairobi said their marriage was on the rocks and at some point he had to seek police protection from the extortion gang which was threatening him but decided to keep off from the home fearing for his safety.

“I was threatened by the guy who was cohabiting with Daisy and I got many complaints from people including my friends who were victims of the extortion ring. I reported the matter at Endau Police Station on September 14, 2019” Mr Ndolo said.

On Thursday, Mr Ndolo recorded statement with police over his wife’s killing detailing his tribulations at the hands of the gang which made him stay away from his family.

“I believe my wife’s murder was planned by the man who cohabited with her to cover up the crimes they had committed together and to benefit from huge amount of monies extorted from more than 40 victims” said the husband.

In an interview with Nation, Mr Ndolo said he was saddened but not surprised by the events because he was aware his matrimonial bed was a base for extortion where men were being lured and tortured.

Pastor Mutua Kitungu who is the school’s parents association chairman said the parents had no issue with the administration and those who stormed the school on opening day was the same gang that later killed the teacher.

The pastor dismissed the narrative that parents were enraged by poor exam results and urged police to get to the bottom of the teacher’s killing.