The apparent murder of Beryl has once again put the Kenyan police on the spotlight.
Beryl apparently met her death in the hands of her violent husband who could not stop beating her despite calls by neighbours for him to stop.
Beryl had sent his father three messages asking him to call her back at around 4 am but when her father eventually called her, the calls went unanswered.
“I didn’t see the texts immediately, but when I called back, she did not pick. A few minutes later, her husband called to say they had an altercation,” Ouma said.
The husband informed his father-in law that he had just taken Beryl to a nearby hospital for treatment but records indicated that she was brought in dead.
Beryl’s brother Mark Ouma said police insisted on taking the body to City Mortuary, but the family blocked them fearing it was a plot to cover up the murder.
“We will transfer the body to a funeral home of our choice and not a mortuary where the many interested parties can easily interfere with the autopsy,” Mark said.
Beryl, a clinical officer, and Lyko wedded in 2017. They have been living together since the latter returned from Qatar, where he had been working. She had had two miscarriages, with the last one about two weeks ago.
The marriage seemed on the rocks; the family said the two had many wrangles some which they failed to solve.
“Her husband is a very violent man and even last year in December, we had a family meeting to solve it. Clearly, he never stopped,” Mark said.
Preliminary reports at the hospital where Beryl was taken indicated she died after being hit with a blunt object, but a conclusive postmortem is yet to be carried out.
Her body has been taken to Chiromo Mortuary, where a post-mortem will be conducted today to ascertain the cause of her death.
Ruiru police boss James Ng’etich confirmed the incident, saying the accused regretted having assaulted his wife, and said he did not know it would lead to her death.