NAIROBI, Kenya Jan 27 – Kayole residents were treated to a day of drama on Wednesday when a man accused of killing his former girlfriend engaged police in hours of persuading him not to commit suicide.
37-year-old Charles Oluenyi was cornered by detectives from the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) at a house in a six-storey flat where he had been hiding since Friday when he allegedly killed his former girlfriend in Njiru.
According to police, the man had visited his girlfriend to resolve their wrangles but was later seen running away after setting the house on fire.
It would later emerge that he had tied the woman’s hands locked the house ad set it on fire before he fled. Residents were not able to save her life when they put out the fire.
On Wednesday morning, the DCI detectives who had been trailing him stormed his hideout in Kayole where he locked himself up and scaled the balcony wall where he threatened to jump off the fifth floor.
The detectives managed to convince him to get back to the house to open the door, but instead he picked up a knife and threatened to slit his throat.
In videos circulating on social media, detectives were seen pleading with him not to take his life even as he sharpened knives, saying “I will kill myself.”
“You don’t have to,” a detective was heard pleading, “there are people out here who have done worse things than you and they are here, you have a life to live.”
Fire fighters from the Nairobi Metropolitan Services were at hand to assist the police with ladders and other equipment as they scaled up and down the six-storey flat.
The scene attracted hundreds of local residents who milled around, complicating efforts by the police to arrest him when he eventually surrendered. He sustained injuries on the neck and police said he will be taken to hospital.
“He is now under arrest,” DCI boss George Kinoti said, “our officers were able to convince him not to commit suicide.”
Kinoti said the man will be arraigned with murder once investigations are completed.
He will also face charges of attempted suicide.
