Man hacks family to death and hangs self

A man killed his wife and two children and then hanged himself in Murang’a on Tuesday.

Bernard Kiiru, a casual labourer, stabbed 22-year-old Teresiah Wambui, his wife of four years, several times with a machete at their Mowlem village home in Makuyu.

He then attacked his two sons aged four and one with the same weapon before he hanged himself from the ceiling of their one-room house.

Witnesses said the body of Kiiru, 30, who was a casual labourer in a neighbouring home, had a wound in the chest, suggesting he had stabbed himself before committing suicide.

His employer, Mr Mwangi Wachira, said he had gone to Kiiru’s house at around 5am to ask him to open the entrance to the borehole and that he had said he would do so.

“When I went to call him again one hour later after he failed to show up, there was no response from him or the wife,” said Mr Wachira.

“I also wanted him to milk the cows but there was no response to my persistent knocks on the door and so I alerted neighbours to help me break in,” he added.

They found the bodies of the wife and children lying in a pool of blood and his body dangling from roof.

EMOTIONAL INSTABILITY

Mr Wachira said Kiiru had worked for him for two weeks and that he had not shown any signs of violence or emotional instability, adding that he could not understand what might have driven him to the act.

He said Kiiru seemed happy with his family and that he never smoked or drank alcohol. Murang’a police chief Naomi Ichami said the bodies were moved to the mortuary.

A similar incident occurred in Machakos on Monday, when a man stabbed his two daughters to death and hanged himself inside his house.

Kioko Mbithi, 27, is said to have stabbed five-year-old Michelle twice in the stomach and Margaret Mbithi, 3, in the face, using a machete.

His father, Mr Tom Maitha said Mbithi and his wife Nzula worked as casual labourers in Nairobi, leaving the girls under his care at Uamani in Matungulu.

Mbithi went home last Saturday and said he had parted ways with his wife, said Mr Maitha.

He added that he went to attend to his chores but walked back home to collect a tool he had forgotten only to find a crowd inside his compound.

Mr Maitha said a woman in the crowd told him that Mbithi had called his aunt Nduku Maitha who lives in Nairobi, informing her that he had killed his two children and was going to kill himself.

“My neighbours rushed to the home, broke the door and found the bodies on the ground in a pool of blood while my son’s body was dangling from the roof,’’ he said.