A 19-year-old man hacked his aunt, sister-in-law and niece to death in a domestic attack in a tragedy in Samutet village in Kericho County.
Police said the suspect was later confronted and lynched by an angry mob on Thursday afternoon. The motive of the attack is yet to be known.
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 in 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 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.
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