Dar man arrested over wife's death after quarrel

Dar es Salaam. Police in Dar es Salaam is holding a man - identified as Jeremiah Duma who works with the National Examinations Council of Tanzania (Necta) - for questioning in connection with the death of his wife, Agnes Mushi (35).

Agnes, who lived at Mbezi-Kwa-Msuguri in the city, was pronounced dead-on-arrival (DoA) at Dar es Salaam’s Bochi Hospital at around midnight last Friday.

Neighbours told The Citizen yesterday that they heard children crying for help and shortly, thereafter, Jeremiah came out asking for help. When they arrived at the family home at around 11 p.m., they found Agnes lying on the floor and, upon rushing her to the hospital, she was pronounced dead.

“On Friday at around 11 at night, we heard children loudly crying for help. And, just as soon, the deceased’s husband came knocking for help. We went there and found her lying down. We took her to Bochi Hospital where, upon arrival, we were told that she was already dead,” said a source who preferred not to be named.

It was at the hospital that the medical experts sensed that something fishy could have happened so they informed the police.

The police came and arrested Jeremiah, hoping he could help them with their investigations, the neighbour said.

The Kinondoni Regional Police Commander, Mr Edward Bukombe, confirmed to The Citizen about the incident yesterday, noting that the couple had been repeatedly quarrelling due to the wife’s habit of getting drunk on beer.

The husband was always unhappy with his wife’s drinking habit. He also accused her of infidelity. “Upon questioning him, he admitted to have had a quarrel with his wife over her drinking habit. He did not have an intention to kill her,” Mr Bukombe told The Citizen’s sister paper Mwananchi yesterday.

Jeremiah and Agnes tied the knot in 2013, and they were blessed with three children, three daughters aged 11, six and three.

Police had also questioned the children in connection with their mother’s death.

A spokesman for the deceased’s family, Mr Joseph Kimario, told The Citizen yesterday that the family has since shifted Agnes’ body from Bochi to Mloganzila for an independent post-mortem to be conducted at the public health facility.

Mr Kimario confirmed the existence of quarrels in the family.

“The man did not like to see his wife taking beer outside their house… On that fateful day, the man returned from his workplace and found her wife drinking beer at home. They started quarrelling on the ground floor of their house and the woman ran upstairs. The man followed her up there where it is alleged he continued pummeling her. It was there that the woman was found lying on the floor,” he said.

Until yesterday, said Mr Kimario, there were differences with regard to where Agnes’ remains will be buried. While Jeremiah’s family says Agnes will have to be buried in Kondoa District, Dodoma Region where her husband hails from, the deceased’s parents want her to be buried in their home village in Moshi, Kilimanjaro Region.

The other option under discussion yesterday was that she should be buried at the family’s home at Mbezi-Kwa-Msuguri.

Cases of domestic quarrels resulting in the death of one or the other family member are not uncommon in Tanzania.

In June, police arrested Erick Samson, a resident of Kimara for questioning over the death of his wife, Mercy Mukandara.

Ms Mukandara’s body was found in their bedroom at the City’s Kimara suburb shortly after her husband sought help from neighbours to take her to hospital.

In July last year, a businessman, Hamisi Saidi was charged at the Kisutu Resident Magistrates Court with the death of his wife Naomi Marijani.

The late Naomi was reported missing by her siblings on May 15, 2019 and efforts to trace her bore no fruit for two months.

It was alleged that the accused admitted during interrogation to killing and burning his wife.

After allegedly committing the heinous crime, Mr Saidi covered the scene of the crime with soil and planted a banana seedling on it.

Following interrogation, he took the police to the crime scene where ashes were collected for analysis. The woman’s family said the couple’s marriage was frequently rocked with frictions.