A Kenyan woman who allegedly killed her drunk husband and later hanged his body inside their house to cover up the evidence was on Thursday arrested by police in Kirinyaga County.

The 29-year-old woman was said to have picked up a quarrel with her husband on Tuesday night, which degenerated into a fight.

However, the woman overpowered her husband, identified as Lawrence Kariuki, 36, and knocked him down.

She stuffed socks into his mouth and strangled him to death. Moments later, she lied to the police that the victim had committed suicide following a domestic dispute.

Kirinyaga East police boss, Mr Antony Wanjuu said his officers became suspicious that something was amiss when they visited the scene to carry out investigations and found socks in the mouth of the victim.

“When we saw the condition of the victim we decided to have a postmortem examination conducted on his body. The results have indicated that he did not commit suicide and we are treating the matter as murder,” he said.

Mr Wanjuu said the woman will soon be arraigned in court.

“The suspect has committed a very serious offence and she must face the law,” he said.

When interviewed, residents said Mr Kariuki constantly fought with his wife whenever he went home drunk.

“His wife used to accuse him of being fond of drinking instead of providing for his family. We think that day the woman was so angry when Kariuki arrived home drunk without food for the family and snuffed out his life,” one of the residents said.