Missing children’s throats slit before being dumped in river
What you need to know:
- The three children aged 6, 5 and 3 had their necks slit by a sharp object before being dumped in the river.
- The oldest also had an injury on the head sustained from a blunt object.
- The bodies were pulled out from the river on different days.
The three children of an MCA aspirant in Uasin Gishu who were found dead in River Nzoia were brutally murdered and dumped in the swollen river.
According to a close family friend, Mr Emmanuel Wafula, the three aged 6, 5 and 3 had their necks slit by a sharp object before being dumped in the river.
The oldest also had an injury on the head sustained from a blunt object.
Mr Wafula led the search for the children, Clifford Nyamweya, 6, Dan Nyamweya, 5 and Glen Ongaki, 3 when they were reported missing last Saturday.
Their father, Mr James Ratemo, is the Kanu candidate for Kapsoya Ward in the coming elections but the police say the killings may stem from a family feud and not politics.
IDENTIFY BODIES
“When we were called to identify the bodies, that of Glen Ogaki and Dan Nyamweya had deep cuts on their throats while the body of the elder child Clifford Nyamweya had a deep scar on the head,” Mr Wafula said.
Police, however, refused to indicate the cause of death saying post-mortem would be done to ascertain this.
The bodies were pulled out from the river on different days.
The first body to be found was that of the eldest, Clifford who was retrieved on Tuesday and taken to the hospital around 5pm.
The second, Dan, was discovered on Wednesday, retrieved the same day and taken to the same hospital in the evening.
The youngest, Glen was located on Thursday evening but it was not until Friday afternoon when it was pulled out of the river.
MOTHER COLLAPSED
The bodies were on Friday evening transferred to the Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital.
Upon hearing the sad news, their mother Ebby Isaji collapsed but she recovered and was able to speak on Saturday.
She revealed she had a strained relationship with her brother-in-law, the main suspect who is in custody.
She said she had received a number of threatening text messages from her husband’s brother, telling her how she was not going to enjoy anything belonging to his brother.
“For the long time I have had sour relationship with my brother in-law. We rarely talk when he comes around,” she said.
CHILLING MESSAGE
Ms Esaji told the Nation at her home in Kapsoya estate that he sent her a chilling message prior to the murder of her three children.
Ms Esaji said that her in-law, who stays not far from their home, developed a cold relationship with her after he impregnated her house help last year and was subsequently forced to marry the maid.
She said he became hostile to her and sent chilling message before the children disappeared.
“The recent message that I received from him before he was last seen with my children scared me very much,” said Ms Isaji.
The section of the text message in Swahili seen by the Nation allegedly sent by the suspect read: “Umepewa muda mdogo sana urudishe mali yetu, kwetu wanawake hawatumii mali yetu usichukulie ni mchezo (You have been given a very short time to return our property in our community women are not allowed to have a share of our wealth this is not a joke.”
INVESTIGATIONS
She said she did not know the reason why he had sent her such a message yet she was properly married to her husband.
Mr Ratemo has said they would leave police to do their investigations.
The suspect who is in custody will appear in court on Monday to take a fresh plea.
He had initially faced kidnapping charges last Monday but the police said that would be changed to murder after the bodies were discovered.
Eldoret East OCPD Adamson Furaha said on Saturday that they had reliable information linking the suspect to the murders.
Mr Furaha said that the suspect who has been remanded at Eldoret GK Prison will appear in court tomorrow to face murder charges.
QUICK INVESTIGATIONS
Nasa Presidential candidate Raila Odinga has asked for quick investigations into the killings.
“It is my hope that the children were not killed because of the political activities of their father. No child should pay for the crimes, real or imagined, of their parents. We labour in vain if politics only leads to the murder of the very children we are hoping to make the country a better place for,” he said.
He called upon the Inspector General of Police Joseph Boinnet to personally take up the investigations into triple killings.
On Saturday two MPs Alfred Keter (Nandi Hills) and his Kapseret counterpart Oscar Sudi visited the grieving family in their Kapsoya home in Eldoret to console them.
COMFORT FAMILY
They appealed to the security officers in the area to speed up investigation into the murder.
“We have come here not as politicians but as parents to comfort this family. It is painful to lose three children at a go. We are calling upon security officers from the counties of Uasin Gishu and Trans Nzoia to work together and speed up investigation into this matter,” said Mr Sudi.
Mr Keter said that if by Tuesday the investigations would have not yield any fruits he will table the matter in Parliament because such incidents have the potential of fuelling fear among residents.
Kenyans from different backgrounds bearing in mind that it had happened during an electioneering period.
