Tragedy struck Samutet village in Kericho County after a
19-year-old man hacked his aunt, sister-in-law, and niece to death in a
domestic attack.
The suspect was later confronted and lynched by an angry mob
on the Thursday afternoon, police said.
Police said the slain suspect, identified as Evans Kiprop,
went berserk and started by hacking his 70-year-old aunt before turning against
his 28-year-old sister-in-law and three-year-old niece using a panga.
He slashed the victims on the head. He also strangled the
minor, police said.
Kericho County Police Commander James Ng'etich said the
suspect ambushed his aunt inside her house as she was going on with her daily
chores and hacked her with a panga.
The sister-in-law, who was nursing a three-month-old baby
and lives next to her mother's house, heard the commotion and rushed to check
what was happening.
The suspect chased and caught up with her as she was trying
to escape and hacked her to death at the cow shed.
After killing the sister-in-law, the deceased went back to
the house, where the innocent child was watching her grandmother being hacked,
and she too was not spared.
She was also strangled to death, witnesses and police said.
Ng'etich said after committing the heinous acts, irate
members of the public lynched the suspect.
“The locals turned on him and stoned him to death. The
police could not help in that situation,” he said.
The child sustained critical injuries and was rushed to
Kericho County Referral Hospital, where she was pronounced dead on arrival.
According to the police commander, the man had a criminal
record and had earlier been convicted and taken to an approved school in the
area.
Ng'etich said the real motive behind the murders is yet to
be known.
The bodies were moved to the Kericho Referral Hospital mortuary
pending an autopsy, police.
The village was left shocked after the incident.
Such murder incidents have been on the rise in villages,
with mental health being partially blamed for the trend.
Police said they are rushing to solve the incidents reported
in the past months.
