He plotted it meticulously. When his former wife and her husband left for work in the morning, he made his move.
On Thursday Nancy Adhiambo and her husband Christopher Okeyo left their three-year-old son Derrick at home. Nancy's former husband Victory Ayieko sneaked into the home in Tassia, Nairobi, and abducted the boy.
Ayieko, 30, is the biological father of Derrick. He rode on a motorcycle with the child for about five kilometers to his house.
He murdered the boy and laid his body on his bed. And then he hanged himself.
Ayieko left a suicide note and Sh500 on the table in his house, instructing Adhiambo to buy airtime with the money and inform the entire family of his death.
Adhiambo and her husband discovered the bodies upon returning from work and failing to find their son at home.
Police and witnesses said the mother inquired from her neighbours on his whereabouts and learnt that a man whose description fitted her former husband had been seen leaving with baby Derrick on a motorbike.
They immediately rushed to Ayieko’s house in Mukuru kwa Njenga slum. They broke the door into the house and found Derick’s body sprawled on the suspect’s bed, with Ayieko’s body hanging on an electric cable close by.
Nairobi acting police boss James Mugera said they were investigating the incident. The bodies were moved to the mortuary.
“Owing to the increased cases of missing children in city estates, parents and guardians are urged to guarantee the safety and security of their children by leaving them in the hands of responsible adults whenever they are away,” he said.
Cases of murder-suicide have been on the rise in the country amid calls to find their causes. Most of those deaths have been linked to mental illnesses.
On Sunday, a police officer shot dead his wife twice on the head in Kiminini, Trans Nzoia county, before turning the gun on himself.
Authorities said sergeant Dorcas Chebet, 27, and her husband Alex Andari, 28, died of gunshot wounds from a G3 rifle at their house.
It is believed a love triangle could be behind the deaths, with police saying Andati accused his wife of infidelity and at one point had considered murder according to communication data in their phones.
Edited by Henry Makori
