•Calvince Okello, a teacher at a primary school in Migori County, is said to have taken his life in a church at Nyangu Village, Kothidha location in Homa Bay Sub-county on Tuesday.
•Reports say he did so after allegedly killing a five-year-old son identified as Charles Norbert.
Image: THE STAR
A sombre mood engulfed a village in Homa Bay County after a primary school teacher committed suicide after allegedly killing his five-year-old son.
Calvince Okello, a teacher at a primary school in Migori County, is said to have taken his life in a church at Nyangu Village, Kothidha location in Homa Bay Sub-county on Tuesday.
Reports say he did so after allegedly kiling a five-year-old son identified as Charles Norbert.
Clear reasons why the 35-year-old teacher committed the ordeal have not been established.
However, the incidents are suspected to have resulted from domestic issues.
According to the Chief of the Kothidha location John Omamo, the incident began on Monday when Okello left home with the son.
His intention was to walk in the village with him and return home a few minutes later.
But the family became concerned in the evening when they failed to return home.
This prompted his wives to begin calling him.
Instead of revealing his intentions, the teacher promised to return home.
“When he was being called, he told his family to give him a few minutes so that he would be back home but he did not,” Omamo said
Family members became concerned at night when Okello failed to return home as he had promised.
On Tuesday morning, the family’s phone calls were not going through.
This raised concerns, prompting the family members to begin looking for them in the village.
His body was found dangling from the roof of a church in the village. He had committed suicide using a rope he had tied to his neck.
A few minutes later, residents found the body of his son on a nearby sugarcane plantation.
The son had some injuries on the neck, raising suspicion that he might have been strangled.
What caused confusion is that Okello killed the son of his second wife with who he had no differences.
“The teacher had domestic differences with his first wife he has killed a child of the second wife with whom he had been living peacefully. This makes it difficult to know the exact reason for the ordeal,” Omamo said.
The body was moved to Homa Bay County Referral Hospital morgue.
Homa Bay Sub-county Directorate of Criminal Investigations Officer Monica Berege said they had launched investigations into the incident.
“We are heading to the scene and investigations are going on to reveal the cause of the death,” Berege said.