Kenyan man commits suicide after killing five children

Kenyan man commits suicide after killing five children

A 47-years-old Kenyan man hacked his five children to death before committing suicide following a domestic quarrel at their home in Kuresoi District of Nakuru County.

John Kiprono Kirui’s wife Betty narrowly escaped death during the grisly incident in Saboi Village, about 200km west of Nairobi, but she suffered panga cuts on the left shoulder.

The children aged between two to 10 years had deep stab wounds all over their bodies.

Mrs Kirui is recovering at Chesirek Dispensary in Keringet. She was traumatised and could not talk to reporters when they visited her.

According to a neighbour, Mr Samuel Langat, the two had started fighting at 11pm (+3GMT) on Monday.

Their quarrels, Mr Langat disclosed, were a routine.

Mr Langat, who is a primary school teacher, said he found the deceased accosting his wife with a panga and in the ensuing confrontation, the woman was cut on the left shoulder.

Cold blood

But she managed to escape through the widow and disappeared.

“We left the homestead after the wife escaped, thinking that – that was the last of the matter as we are used to seeing them fight on a daily basis,” he said.

Mr Langat added: “But at 3am, we heard the children screaming and after rushing to the place again, we found the kitchen up in smoke and on asking Kiprono what was happening, he said it had burned down by accident.”

He said they returned and no one knows what happened later.

Mr Langat said he only came to realise that his neighbour had killed his children in cold blood at 8am Tuesday.

He said he had gone to find out what was happening on noticing that the door to the house had remained locked whereas the couple often woke up early.

Area District Commissioner Cyrus Gatobu said it was a case of domestic violence.