For weeks, life went on around Mercy Wachinga Maina’s apartment in Lavington as though nothing had changed. Neighbours went about their routines, her cat remained around the compound and the 32-year-old woman’s door stayed shut—until a strong smell finally led to a discovery that left those who knew her struggling to understand what had happened.
Maina’s decomposed body was found on Thursday, September 3, inside her 10th-floor apartment at Forhome Court, weeks after she was last seen alive.
What makes the case more painful for her family is that Maina had already left behind a note outlining what she wanted after her death, thanking those close to her and asking her mother for forgiveness.
Police said Maina had not been seen since August 12, although neighbours recalled seeing her around the apartment block earlier in August.
On one of her final days, she was seen carrying her black cat, Woods, to a nearby bush.
A neighbour who came across her asked why she was leaving the cat there. Maina reportedly said Woods had become a bother and that she no longer wanted to keep it.
She later returned to her apartment.
Shortly afterwards, she came out carrying wads of dollars and handed money to children outside the building.
“She was very jovial when I last saw her. She was dishing out money to children,” one neighbour said.
It was one of the last times she was seen by people around the apartment.
Woods, however, remained around the compound, where neighbours occasionally fed the cat.
Maina had lived at the apartment for about two years and paid Sh65,000 in monthly rent.
Her final note, written at about 4am, showed that she had spent time thinking about what she wanted to leave behind.
“I have been up since 4am, mostly trying to figure out how to go about this,” she wrote.
She appeared to know that her decision would be difficult for others to understand.
“Anyway, I know people say this is a cowards way out. So yeah, I might be the biggest coward ever,” she wrote.
Maina asked people not to judge others and instead urged them to show love.
“Stop judging people,” she wrote.
She also asked her mother to forgive her and left her belongings to her.
The note carried a personal message for her family, with Maina thanking her mother for changing and for being a good mother to her sister, Princess.
“Thank you, mom, for changing and being a good mom to my sister Princess. I wish it was that way when we were kids. To my shosh, grandpa, thanks for taking care of us. I know things were hard at the time but you really did good.”
She also urged her relatives to put aside the differences that had grown among them.
“It's all vanity anyway. You all gonna die and nothing else will matter,” she wrote.
Maina wanted her remains handled differently from a traditional funeral. She asked to be cremated and wanted her ashes scattered in a river, saying she loved rivers. She also did not want a eulogy.
“I humbly ask to be cremated [for] reasons only known to me. Anyone who has questions can come ask me. Lol. Also, no eulogy. Honestly, you guys don't know thing about me at all...” she wrote.
She thanked her landlord for not evicting her during a period when she could not pay rent.
Despite the note, her absence did not immediately lead to her being found.
Concern only grew after a cleaner at Forhome Court noticed a strong smell coming from the apartment and alerted management. Another neighbour later raised the same concern.
The management contacted police officers from Muthangari Police Station, who went to the apartment.
Forhome Court house manager Fred Kombo said officers had to force their way into the house after receiving no response.
“We rang the doorbell but she was unresponsive. Then we reported the matter to Muthangari Police station and broke into the room on September 3, 2026,” Kombo said.
Inside, officers found Maina’s decomposed body on a bed.
A jiko containing burnt charcoal was also found in the room. Scenes of Crime officers processed the apartment before the body was moved to the City Mortuary.
Three mobile phones were recovered, but all were locked, leaving investigators without immediate access to their contents.
Police said Maina is believed to have died by suicide and said they had authenticated the note she left behind. The motive, however, remains unclear.
To those who knew her, Maina was a private, kind and quiet woman. She enjoyed music and often sat on her balcony, watching the world outside.
Her tenancy agreement described her as a self-employed aesthetician, while her mother knew her as a businesswoman based in Nairobi.
Her mother had also spoken to her on the phone before her death, with nothing in the conversation suggesting that anything was wrong.
Now, the family must decide how to honour the wishes Maina left behind.
“We are yet to decide. It is a topic of discussion,” her mother said.
For the family, that decision comes alongside a more difficult reality: a daughter and sister who had been living among other people in a busy Nairobi neighbourhood was gone for weeks before anyone could reach her.
Maina’s death has also raised concern about the dangers of using charcoal-burning jikos in poorly ventilated spaces. Burning charcoal can produce carbon monoxide, an odourless and potentially deadly gas that interferes with the blood’s ability to carry oxygen.