Police hunt men who bullied initiate to death in Kandara

A teen died in Kandara, Muranga County after four men, who were initiating him to manhood, allegedly beat him to death over chicken. PHOTO | NTV

What you need to know:

  • A post-mortem report showed that the teen, who recently did his final primary school exams, had a clot in his brain.

A newly circumcised teenager died in Kandara, Murang’a County after he was allegedly beaten to death by men, who were initiating him to manhood, over chicken. 

Juliano Kanyonyo, 15, was found dead on Monday morning after he failed to wake up to take breakfast.

The postmortem pointed to a clot in the teen’s brain as the possible cause of his death.

His mother Beth Nyambura said four men who visited the initiate in a bid to counsel him and welcome him into manhood beat her child over a ‘chicken’.

The visitors later accused the initiate of giving them a cockerel, instead of a mature cock resulting in the beating.

Kikuyu tradition demands that whenever a man undergoes an initiation rite, he must produce several cocks and cigarettes to older men welcoming him into manhood.

The following morning she woke up early to look for a mature chicken for them.

“When I returned home at about 8am I noticed that my son had not woken up. I did not believe my eyes when I realised that my son was lying in his bed breathless,” she told the Nation.

On Wedensday, Kandara police boss Wilson Kosgey said police were pursuing the four suspects who visited the initiate.

The police boss decried the rising cases of bullying of initiates in Kandara, saying that another initiate was recuperating in hospital after his ‘advisers’ poisoned him, during a similar ordeal.