•Missing body parts suggest a cult, perhaps harvesting body parts for rituals and drinking blood.
•Three people killed, one seriously injured in two separate attacks outside the victims' houses, not far apart.
Three Bomet men have been killed and one injured in two separate cult-like murders in which body parts were taken.
Police, religious leaders and the public are baffled and fearful.
One man was killed and one was seriously injured on Thursday night. The survivor recorded a statement with police from his hospital bed.
Bomet Central subcounty police commander Musa Omari called it "odd" and said the killings could boil down to cult. He said he could not draw conclusions, however, until investigations are complete.
Some observers said the murders might have been carried out by a cult harvesting body parts for rituals.
In the latest incident on Thursday night last week, the naked body of a middle-aged mechanic identified as Stephen Okoth had his left eye gouged out. The left ear was chopped off.
He had a deep gash in his left thigh, a suggestion that the bloodthirsty killer or killers wanted to drink from a major severed artery, some observers speculated.
His body was dumped outside his house.
His close friends and relatives said he didn't showed up at work on Thursday morning as usual. They said he never expressed fears for his life.
Investigating officers said they were puzzled by cause of death since the latest victims, dead and injured, had no marks indicating they were struck dead by sharp or blunt objects.
This follows the similar recent killings of two middle-aged men on their way home a kilometre from Bomet town.
The two men killed earlier lived in the same plot some few meters from a Kenya Breweries depot and a few meters from the Kings Outreach church next to the main highway.
Both killings happened outside the victims' houses and attackers escaped with body parts.
Residents are demanding police fast-track investigations and make arrests so they can be assured of their own security.
They want to know why the killer or killers seemed to target members of one community.
Relatives of the man admitted at Tenwek hospital after teh Thursday night attack said he knew the attackers and the residents hoped he would recover so he could shed light on the killings.
Bomet county criminal investigations officer Jacob Muli said police have recorded a statement from him.
Police said he might have been trailed from a club in town where he said to have spent some time.
He urged the members of the public to volunteer information to the police so the culprit or culprits can be arrested.
(Edited by V. Graham)