Food vendor and her customer found dead and naked in restaurant

A restaurant vendor and her customer were found dead inside the restaurant in Mkwawa, Iringa Municipal Council, on Monday morning.

Swiga Mwakalobo (35), a food vendor, and her customer, Jacob Chang'a, were found naked inside the restaurant.

Their bodies were found after Swiga's relatives went looking for her after she did not return home the night before.

Neighbors who spoke to The Citizen said they found the bodies after breaking down the door. There was a charcoal stove next to the bodies, with a saucepan containing beans.

"Swiga usually worked at the restaurant until late at night, and because she usually closes late to prepare breakfast, we were not worried," said Hamza Hamisi, Swiga's brother.

He said that when they did not see Swiga by Monday morning, neighbors started looking for her on the phone, but there was no response.

"We then went to her restaurant and called her phone, and we heard it ringing inside the restaurant, but the door was locked. When we looked through the window, we saw two bodies lying on the floor, naked," said Ibrahim Issa, a resident of Mkwawa.

He said they broke down the door and found that the people were already dead.

Imalanongwa ward chairman Hamis Chananja said they called the police, who arrived at the scene.