A university student has been arrested for allegedly setting his brother, wife and child ablaze in a Mumias village in Kakamega county.
Innocent Makokha is said to have set his brother’s family on fire while they were asleep in their semi-permanent house in Eshikalame village, Musanda ward in Mumias West constituency in the wee hours of Saturday.
Eugene Omunyore, 23, his wife Miriam Echesa and their daughter Eiden aged one-and-half years struggled out of the burning house and made it with serious burns.
They were rushed to St Mary’s Mission Hospital in Mumias town from where they were referred to Bungoma.
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Omunyore died on Saturday while his daughter succumbed to injuries on Monday. His wife is still fighting for her life at Life Care Hospital in Bungoma town.
Villagers said the suspect had earlier complained that his parents liked his brother more than him and that he had threatened to do something unspecified.
He is said to have returned home on Saturday and attempted to start digging a grave to bury his brother’s body as he spoke a language that could not be understood.
He then ran amock and begun to smash windows on houses in the compound, prompting the parents to call in the police who arrested him.
Police arrested the suspect on Monday.
“I heard distress calls on the door by my younger children asking me to open the door and that there was fire in their brother’s house. When I woke up I saw fire in the house and jumped out,” said Sella Atsieno, the late Eugene’s mother.
Atsieno said that the suspect had been quarrelling with her and his brother frequently and the last time was about four days before, when he left and warned her of dire consequences.
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She said Omunyore returned home on Saturday after being out for three days and started hurling insults at everyone around the home while threatening them with a machete and started smashing window panes. He then took a hoe and started digging a grave for his brother, prompting them to call in the police.
She said her deceased son was a humble person who never differed with anyone within the community.
Omunyore’s father Apollo Kalio said the wailing woke up the entire neighbourhood who tried to put out the fire that had spread in their two-room house.
“The back door had been set on fire but given it was metallic the fire went out and my wife managed to come out through the front door,” said Kalio.
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A jerry can with petrol, a torch and a knife were recovered in the compound.
Mumias West DCI boss Robert Muriithi said the suspect was held for malicious damage of properties but had not been linked to the murders.
“We are piecing together information to get the culprits who did the crime. The brother is being held for malicious damage to properties but we haven’t found evidence to link him yet,” Muriithi said.
-The Star/ Hilton Otenyo
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