Foul smell from locked shop causes panic among Nyeri locals

There was drama and panic in Nyeri town on July 27, 2023, after police broke into a boutique shop on suspicion that the owner had committed suicide.

The one-hour drama started around 2 pm after neighbouring shop owners raised the alarm over a foul smell emanating from the shop. Locals said that the owner of the shop had not opened the business for weeks and flies were all over the place. 

“We were afraid that one of us had committed suicide as we had not seen her for a whole week and the bad smell was unbearable, it made us feel that something bad might have happened, we suspected the owner had taken their life or died after locking herself in the shop,” a neighbour said.

Police officers responded immediately and broke into the shop. When police arrived, they barricaded the shop and with the help of local welders broke down the door as tension escalated among locals who had milled around to see what was happening. 

There was a pin-drop silence and all eyes were fixed on the door as detectives got into the shop only to come out with a dead cat.

“There was a bad smell coming from the shop and that got us worried since we had not seen the owner of the shop for a while. We called the police,” said Genesis Ngunjiri, another resident.

When the owner of the shop was contacted she said she had traveled to Mombasa.