Police in Kenya have detained a 65-year-old woman for the gruesome murder of her husband Ndung’u Mugachia, 99.

A sombre mood engulfed Ndururumo village in Kigumoini, Murang’a county, following the Sunday morning incident.

In a murder most foul, Margret Wanjiru Ndungu, killed her husband using a machete by slitting his throat open and leaving his body sprawled on the floor.

Mugachia who was born in 1922 and was in his twilight years, had just woken up and was warming himself by the fire in his son’s house, before he was brutally attacked by his wife.

According to Betty Mumbi, a daughter-in-law to the deceased, Wanjiru woke up in the morning and started hurling insults at her husband, who at the time was in the kitchen taking his breakfast.

“She woke up and started insulting the husband and included me because I was the one serving him breakfast. The husband tried to calm her down, but it was in vain,” she said.

Mumbi said the deceased never wanted to engage in a fight and tried to calm her down, but instead, she grabbed a panga and in full swing slit her husband’s throat before cutting off his head.

“She dashed for the panga and slit his throat. I tried saving him, but she also started attacking me,” Mumbi said.

With blood oozing from her father-in-law’s throat, Mumbi immediately raised the alarm to alert her neighbours who rushed to the scene, but it was too late.

“He was lying outside the house as he tried to escape, but she overpowered him and cut off his head,” she added.

The scene was processed by crime scene detectives and the deceased’s body moved to Gaichanjiru Catholic mission hospital mortuary, awaiting autopsy.