Double death at a Nairobi hotel

BY OLIVIA MUNGWANA

Police are investigating the mysterious deaths of a British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) journalist and a Kenyan man at a Nairobi hotel on Friday morning.

The body of the journalist, identified as Katherine Mitchell Rowena, was found in her city hotel room with preliminary investigations showing that she was stabbed before being strangled to death.

Police yesterday said initial investigations pointed to a murder-suicide case, adding that the man whose body was found in the same Ibis Styles Hotel in Westlands, died from a fall.

Ibis Styles Hotel in Westlands, NAIROBI.

Augustine Nthumbi, the Nairobi regional police commander said the man may have been involved in a scuffle with Mitchell, 42, before jumping from the window.

“The main suspect in the murder of the female Briton is believed to be the middle-aged man whose lifeless body was also found in the same hotel, having fallen from the same floor,” police said.

Detectives, however, said they were conducting a thorough investigation and could not rule out the murder of the two.

Mr Nthumbi said the hotel staff responded to a panic call from the room, but when they went to check, they found it locked from the inside.