- Also in custody is a bodaboda rider who took the two deceased ex-officers to the home after an overnight journey from Nairobi.
- Detectives found the suspect at 11 pm on Tuesday after he evaded their dragnet for days. He was found hiding in a park that has many wild animals.
A retired prison officer was arrested while hiding at the Maasai Mara National Park over an alleged mob lynching incident that happened at his Transmara home in Narok county.
Police and witnesses claim that he set up his two former colleagues to be killed as they sought to settle a debt he owed them.
The suspect had been missing for almost a week since the two prison wardens were killed in an attack at his home.
Detectives from the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) found the suspect at 11 pm on Tuesday after he evaded their dragnet for days. He was found hiding in a park that has many wild animals.
The suspect was taken for interrogation to Kilgoris ahead of planned arraignment.
At least five members of his family are in custody over the incident.
Also in custody is a bodaboda rider who took the two deceased ex-officers to the home after an overnight journey from Nairobi.
The deceased left Nairobi on Wednesday in pursuit of what officers in the prisons department say was to settle the matter with the suspect who reportedly defaulted on a loan and left the city to reside in the countryside.
This is after he retired from the service.
The incident happened Thursday, March 14 morning in Tepesonik village in Transmara West, police said.
Upon reaching the suspect's homestead the two were met with hostility from his family.
The suspect had reportedly told his family that the two strangers in their homestead were thugs.
The wife, however, told police her husband was not home then.
This prompted them to scream attracting residents who joined and pounced on the two prison wardens who were in civilian attire with arrows and machetes.
According to police, the villagers responded while armed with crude weapons including bows and arrows and fatally injured the two.
Police who responded to the scene said the body of one of the deceased had three arrows lodged in his knee, at the back and on the right side of the chest while the other sustained several cuts on the head and the whole body.
A search was conducted at the homestead leading to the recovery of a bow and seven arrows, a blood-stained panga and a broken blood-stained walking stick.
Kilgoris police boss Jamleck Ngaruiya said they are investigating the murder and the probe is ongoing.
“Mob lynching is criminal and should be discouraged at all costs. We will ensure justice for the deceased officers,” he said.
Police plan to make a miscellaneous application in court to be allowed to hold the suspects as investigations go on. Police said they learned one of the deceased officers lent an unknown amount of money to the retired officer.