•Chania is suspected to have colluded in executing his murder with a new employee and other accomplices.
Image: STANLEY NJENGA
Kiambu politician Gladys Chania and her farmhand have each been granted a Sh1 million bond and a surety of a similar amount.
The two, Maurice Mbugua and Chania, are the main suspects in the murder of George Mwangi, husband to Chania.
The Directorate of Criminal Investigations had made an application to have the two detained for seven more days.
But senior resident magistrate Wilson Rading declined the application.
The two suspects had earlier been detained for seven days to allow DCI to conclude investigations.
Detectives arrested Chania on October 14. The detectives said Chania is believed to have mooted the murder plan after she learnt about her husband's alleged love affair with a secretary at a local school.
Mwangi, 58, is a contractor based in Rwanda and arrived in the country on September 13.
Chania is suspected to have colluded in executing his murder with a new employee and other accomplices.
The couple had been married for 20 years with three children.
"However, according to multiple sources, their union seemed to have been undergoing turbulent times since the woman would mostly spend her time at their Thika home while Mwangi would stay at the splendid five-bedroomed Mang’u residence whenever he was in the country," DCI said.
The DCI revealed that the alleged affair begun shortly after the woman met Mwangi while house-hunting for a rental apartment.
He offered her one of his rentals next to his house.
The alleged affair was reportedly not a secret as the two spent a lot of time together whenever Mwangi was in the country.
DCI said they would be spotted at local entertainment joints and other social gatherings.
"Some of the family members intimated to detectives that the deceased had introduced the woman to his family as his second wife and she was well known to the extended family," DCI stated.
On the day Mwangi was murdered, he had attended a family function in Kimunyu accompanied by his love interest.
Chania also attended the event.
Witnesses said the alleged lover was on the driver’s wheel of Mwangi's double cabin truck and after the function, they headed back to Mang’u.
Chania had left earlier and was in the house when the two arrived.
That was the last time Mwangi was seen alive until the discovery of his body on Wednesday in Kieni forest by workers at the Kiamunyeki tea plantation.
The body was discovered in the forest wrapped in black polythene under a heap of cartons and empty bags of cement.
Detectives believe that the suspect placed a call to make a missing person's report after dumping the body.
The investigating detectives also learnt that Chania had hired a new employee, Morris Kamau, on the eve of the murder after a John Mwangi, who had worked for her for four years allegedly failed to return home after he was sent to deposit money on MPesa.