Police in Mombasa have arrested a man who worked as guard for an elderly Italian woman murdered during a robbery at a villa 40 kilometres north of the Kenyan coastal city, the Africa Express website reported on Tuesday.
Police believe the man was involved in the killing of Maria Laura Satta, 71, who was hacked to death with a machete on Monday by intruders at the villa she and her 72-year-old husband Luigi Scassellati owned in the coastal resort of Kikambala.
Scassellati was rushed to a private hospital in Mombasa in a critical condition after being savagely beaten by the robbers while Satta bled to death at their villa from gashes to her head and neck, according to Kenyan police.
"My wife died and I feel guilty because I was the one who got us to buy the villa in Kenya," Africa Express cited Scassellati as saying from hospital, where he was reported to be in stable condition.
Police have yet to establish why Satta and Scassellati were so savagely attacked. The villa is surrounded by hotels and holiday developments and Satta is said to be the first European murdered in the area in at least 30 years.
The couple owned an office machinery company in Cremona, northern Italy and arrived in Kenya on 12 July for a three-month stay, police said.
They were reportedly found in the villa by an Italian friend, who they had invited for lunch.
Rome prosecutors have prepared international warrants to obtain evidence for the investigation, in collaboration with the foreign ministry and the couple's two sons were due to arrive in Kenya on Tuesday.
Italian-born author and conservationist Kuki Gallmann was shot in the hip and abdomen by illegal cattle herders at her ranch in Laikipia in Kenya's central highlands in April amid a deadly wave of violence and her tourist lodge was torched.
Kenyan president Uhuru Kenyatta condemned Gallmann's shooting.
Gallmann survived the attack.
