A KDF intelligence officer based at Lanet in Nakuru yesterday shot dead two relatives, his KDF officer girlfriend and himself.
He committed the massacre with an M4 semi-automatic rifle.
The officer identified as Haron Atyon had been drinking with his girlfriend and they left a bar at about 5am.
They drove to his relatives' houses before dawn and he shot them over what police and neighbours suspect was a land dispute.
They lived near Jua Kali in Uasin Gishu county.
A relative Kibiwott Ngelechei said the attacker's father had sold all his land, leaving his sons homeless.
The officer first shot his uncle Benard Muge 10 times. Then he drove three kilometres to his aunt, Rosa Sang's home. She hid under the bed.
When his girlfriend Dorcas Lorinyo, a KDF officer at Moi Barracks, tried to intervene, he shot her 27 times in the chest at his aunt's house.
He shot her once in the head.
The attacker then turned the gun on himself.
His cousin Eliud Kiptanui who was at the second home ran away.
Eldoret West OCPD Zachary Bitok says officers from the nearby Jua Kali patrol base ran to the scene after hearing gunshots but the killings had already taken place.
“We recovered several used cartridges from the two scenes which are three kilometres apart and we are carrying out an in-depth probe to establish the officer's motive," Bitok said.
The semi-automatic rifle had three magazines with 30 bullets each.
“It’s like he had planned to carry out the killings,” the OCPD said.
The officer is said to have arrived in the area on Sunday and was on his way to Lokichogio on assignment.
On Monday, he spent most of the day with his girlfriend, went to Moi Barracks before returning to Jua Kali with his girlfriend. They drank at the bar for a long time and left together.
After his killing spree, he turned the gun to his head and fired, Bitok said.
Residents were horrified at the bloodbath.
Speaking of the land dispute, relative Ngelechei said, “His father and two uncles had in the past equally shared out their family land very well without any dispute. But the father to the attacker sold all his land and left the sons to live with the other relatives."
After they were left homeless, the family tried to help The attacker and one brother managed to join KDF.
“We knew that was good for them because though they did not have land to inherit, they had jobs and would be able to buy land for themselves," Ngelechei said.
He said the attacker harboured anger because he did not have a home.
“We think it’s out of the anger that he did all this."
The officer had not complained over land.
Elders said they would carry out a cleansing ritual.
Police took the bodies to the Moi Referral Hospital mortuary.
(Edited by R.Wamochie)
