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Brian Malila

Police in Mbeere South, Embu county,  are investigating an incident in which a man killed his wife and two children.

Directorate of Criminal Investigations said the woman was aged 28 while the children were aged nine and five. 

The man suspected to be mentally unstable, brutally murdered his five-month pregnant wife and the children as his other family members tried in vain to gain access to the house yesterday morning.

David Kariuki Nyaga, who has since been arrested, had locked up his family inside their house in Kiamukuyu village before he attacked them, using a sledge hammer.

The suspect is expected to be questioned today by the Homicide detectives to establish what transpired and the motive of the macabre killing.

It is yet to be established if the suspect also wanted to kill his elder sister, whom he had summoned earlier to his home but unsuccessfully tried to convince her to spend the night at his house.

Homicide detectives from the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) recovered the murder weapon, and have launched investigations to establish the motive of the murder. 

“Unfortunately, by the time of the arrival of the officers, the suspect had wiped out his entire family in the most despicable manner, by hitting their foreheads using a sledge hammer,” the DCI said.

Mbeere South sub-county police commander Gregory Mutiso, however told the People Daily that the suspect was mentally ill and at the time of the murder, he was still undergoing treatment.

Mood and behaviour

The DCI said the suspect would be subjected to mental assessment once the investigations are complete. 

Few hours before the brutal murder, the suspect’s sister- Jane Muthoni had noticed a change in his brother’s mood and behaviour. This prompted her to ask him but he said he was fine.

“We spent the better part of Saturday at his farm together with his wife. After that I went home, but he later summoned me to his house later in the evening,” she said.

Muthoni however said when she went to his brother’s home in the evening, he never told her anything and instead asked her to go have a chat with his wife in the kitchen.

“I could see that there was something disturbing him. He pleaded with me to spend the night at his house but I declined,” she said.

When Muthoni reached home, she narrated to their mother what had transpired and the mother, sensing that something was not right,   decided to visit Kariuki’s home late in the night, accompanied by other family members. 

Upon reaching Kariuki’s home, he had locked the door from inside. Muthoni said a few minutes later, they heard the brother shouting as he broke the window glasses.

They pleaded with him in vain to open the door. “I peeped through the window and saw Kariuki’s wife, seated on a chair, and bleeding profusely.

She later supported herself on the chair but when I called her, I realised she could not speak,” Muthoni said.

They would later hear Kariuki’s first born plead with the father to spare his life but he would hear none of it. He hit him with a sledge hammer on the forehead, killing him on the spot.

Feeling helpless and frustrated, they screamed and called for assistance from the area residents. 

Neighbours responded and broke the door but were only met by the three bodies in a pool of blood.

The bodies of the three family members were yesterday taken to Embu Level Five Hospital while the suspect was detained at Kiritiri Police station.