The wife of a retired Standard Bank manager was yesterday morning found murdered in Tungutu village in Kitui Central. The body was found by residents in a thicket next to the road about 200 hundred metres from her home.

She was found lying on her stomach. She was the wife of John Wambua a banker-turned-businessman. Blood was oozing from her mouth and she had a swelling in the head.

It could not be immediately established how the woman had met her death on Wednesday night. The woman had worked at Standard Bank headquarters in Nairobi as a secretary while her husband was the manager at the Standard Bank Athi River branch.

They had retired and were engaged in business in Kitui town. A polythene bag with some fresh maize cobs lay next to the body. The villagers who found her believe she was strangled to death and dumped by the roadside.

A niece of the woman fainted after viewing her body. She was helped by a good samaritan to regain her consciousness. The Wiper county representative nominee for Kitui township ward Daniel Ngoima consoled the family.

CID officers led by Kitui police boss Alexander Korir arrived at the scene of crime at 9.00 am. They dusted the scene for fingerprints and took photographs.

The police later transported the body to the Kitui district hospital morgue for preservation. They also summoned the deceased husband and a house help to record statement on the death as investigations got underway.