A member of a council advising Iran’s supreme leader has died after falling sick from coronavirus.

He has become the first top official to succumb to the disease which is affecting members of the Islamic Republic’s leadership, which has the highest death toll in the world outside China.

Expediency Council member Seyyed Mohammad Mirmohammadi died aged 71 at a hospital in Tehran, according to state radio. As well as acting as advisers, the council also settles disputes between Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and parliament.

Also among the country’s infected officials is Iraj Harirchi, head of an Iranian government task force on the coronavirus who tried to downplay the virus before falling ill.

Other high profile patients include Vice President for women and family affairs Masoumeh Ebtekar, better known as ‘Sister Mary’.

Police in Kiambu County, Kenya has arrested a 26-year-old man, who allegedly killed his girlfriend on Wednesday, February 26, in Ruaka.

Tairus Mwangi, who is a prison warder at Malindi GK Prison in Kilifi County, is alleged to have bludgeoned Purity Karwirwa multiple times in the head, nose and back using a hammer.

Mwangi and 26-year-old Karwirwa dated for one-and-a-half years, and their relationship which began on Facebook, was riddled with an unending dispute, the deceased’s brother, Erick Kimathi, told K24 Digital on Saturday, February 29.

Kimathi revealed that his sister, who earned a living from online writing, would often visit her lover at his Malindi workstation.

“Their relationship was full of physical abuse, with the suspect often being the aggressor,” said Kimathi.

Karwirwa, according to the brother, — of late — stayed at her friend’s place in Donholm, Nairobi.

The friend, Skitter Ntinyari, told K24 Digital that every time Karwirwa was on phone with her lover, she would hear them quarrelling.

“Rarely would their conversations end without the two disagreeing over an issue,” said Ntinyari.

Mwangi is said to have arrived in Nairobi on Tuesday, February 25, and asked Karwirwa if he could meet her so that they could iron out their differences.

Karwirwa accepted the request, and Mwangi went and picked his girlfriend from the friend’s place in Donholm.

It is said Mwangi, thereafter, took Karwirwa to his sister’s place in Ruaka, where they quarrelled — again — on Wednesday, February 26.

It was then that Mwangi allegedly reached for a hammer and hit Karwirwa in the head, nose and back, killing her on the spot. The deceased’s brother says the fatal striking was done five times.

CCTV footage at the scene of the crime showed Mwangi leaving his sister’s house later Wednesday after having a change of clothes.
The suspect’s sister, who arrived at her house on Wednesday evening, was shocked to find Karwirwa’s body lying in a pool of blood on the floor.

She reported the incident at the Karuri Police Station, prompting a hunt for the suspect, who had escaped to an unknown destination.

DCI detectives, who tapped the suspect’s phone signal, tracked him down to a bar in Kahawa West on Thursday, February 27. Mwangi was arrested and taken to Karuri Police Station, where he is being held in custody.

A postmortem examination on Karwirwa’s body, which was conducted on Friday, February 28, at the Kihara Level 4 Hospital morgue, indicated that the 26-year-old died from inflicted head injuries.