- Ngiluni Assistant chief Justus Muli said the suspect allegedly abducted the minors, lured them to his house before he committed the atrocity.
- According to the Assistant Chief, the two girls who are cousins live with their grandmother at Ivumbuni village.
Image: THE STAR
A 34-year-old man was Saturday lynched by angry villagers in Ivumbuni Mbooni, Makueni county over suspicion of defiling and killing two girls aged seven and 10.
Ngiluni Assistant chief Justus Muli said the suspect allegedly abducted the minors, lured them to his house before he committed the atrocity.
"The suspect is reported to have gone to the girls' home at around 8am, met the 10-year-old girl, requested her to call the uncle who didn't wake up claiming he wasn't feeling well, however, how he disappeared with the girls is still unknown," Muli said.
According to the Assistant Chief, the two girls who are cousins live with their grandmother at Ivumbuni village.
"The grandmother had just left to fetch water at the river, on coming back she prepared tea and grew suspicious after the girls failed to come have their breakfast as usual. At around 11am she grew restless and remembered the man who had visited their compound in the morning. Accompanied by neighbours, the minors's grandmother visited the home of the man but found all the houses locked."
Muli said the neighbours found him at the nearby Kwa Mukali shopping centre but he refused to go open the door though appeared frightened.
The neighbours, he said, then went to a police post in Ngiluni and were accompanied by two police officers who forced the suspect to open the door only to find the bodies of the two children hidden under the bed.
One of the neighbours Festus Kaloki said the minors seemed to have been strangled after being defiled.
The suspect is believed to be from Mwala in Machakos and lives alone in the homestead of his employer at Ivumbuni village and had worked there for two months.
"The deceased was not a man of many words, after work he would visit the nearby shopping centre, take one or two bottles of beer and leave for home," added Muli.
He said members of the public attacked the suspect with stones and other crude weapons leaving him dead.
"When I arrived at the scene at around 1:22pm, I found the man burning with the police trying to control the angry mob which had even injured one of the officers who tried to protect the suspect," Muli said.
He added that the matter was reported at Tawa police station in Mbooni subcounty and the scene visited and processed.
The Assistant chief said the bodies of the minors were taken to Tawa hospital mortuary while the one for the suspect was moved to Makueni Referall hospital. Investigations have commenced.
He, however, warned members of the public against taking law into their hands in such cases, adding that whatever happened was wrong.
Muli also cautioned employers to ensure they did a background check before employing workers to their homes.
"Such has never happened before but it's an eye opener to us security watch dog to beep up security in order to cub such incidents," he added.