• The man is reported to have been a friend and quarry worker for the family of one of the two children who were murdered.
• Assistant chief Faraja Malit said the man and the children were last seen looking after cattle at neighbouring Pap village at 6pm.
Police in Kendu Bay are looking for a 19-year-old quarry worker whom they link to the murder of two ECDE pupils in Karachuonyo.
The bodies were found on Saturday in River Sare in Kogweno Oriang’ West sublocation, Homa Bay.
Police said they were probably strangled, not drowned.
The man fled.
The two children were identified as Henry Ochieng, aged four, and Vantaly Otieno, five.
The children belong to different families at Kawakungu village, Kogweno Oriang’ location.
The man is reported to have been a friend of one family and also worked in a quarry for the family.
The children left home with the suspect on Friday morning when they said they were going to look for cattle in a village field.
They did not return home that evening.
Families of the children and residents searched all Friday night.
Area assistant chief Faraja Malit said the suspect and children were last seen tending cattle in a field at neighbouring Pap village at 6pm.
The cattle were found in the village at 3am on Saturday. The children were nowhere to be seen.
The search resumed the search on Saturday morning.
Later in the day, their bodies were found in River Sare.
Searchers first found Vantaly's clothes on the riverbank, then they saw the body in the river.
About 200 metres away, they found Henry’s slippers before they spotted his body in the river.
Malit said the children might have been strangled to death before being dumped in the river.
“The bodies have no visible injuries. We suspect they were strangled because their stomachs would have swollen if they had drowned,” he said.
“The young man used to live with one of the minors’ parents whom he used to assist to operate a quarry where they carved stones. But he has not been seen after the incident," Malit said.
Kendu Bay police and residents were looking for the suspect.
The bodies were moved to Kendu Adventist Hospital morgue at Gendia.
Vantaly was in pre-primary 2 and Henry in PP1.
(Edited by V. Graham)