NAIROBI – The charge d’affaires at the Venezuelan Embassy in Kenya, Olga Fonseca, was found strangled to death Friday inside her Nairobi residence.

“The diplomat was strangled to death this morning and her body still lies in the house while the circumstances surrounding her death are being investigated,” capital police chief Anthony Kibuchi told the media.

Four domestic servants have been taken to the police station in the Gigiri neighborhood on Nairobi’s north side where the Venezuelan Embassy is located to help with the criminal investigation, Kibuchi said.

The administrative assistant of the Venezuelan diplomatic mission, Jose Miguel Reyes, told Efe that “they’re investigating and it appears (Fonseca) was murdered – they tied wires around her feet and neck.”

Asked about a possible motive for the crime, he said that police “don’t wish to say anything as yet because they’re still reviewing the evidence.”

“They’re also trying to check her telephone record, because this morning we got a messge from her saying she was resting and that we would see each other this afternoon,” Reyes said.

Fonseca, a 57-year-old career diplomat, arrived in Nairobi on July 15 to take charge of the embassy, Reyes said.

Her death occurred soon after Kenyan personnel at the Venezuelan Embassy filed a complaint because Fonseca had supposedly fired them, the Daily Nation newspaper said.

Those employees, according to the daily, were supposedly dismissed for refusing to retract their accusations of sexual harassment against Fonseca’s predecessor, Gerardo Carrillo Silva. EFE