Police in Kirinyaga county are investigating circumstances under which a middle-aged man butchered his wife and four children on Monday night.

Residents woke up to the news of the chilling murders yesterday morning with shocked villagers discussing the bizarre incident in low tones.

Local police were also left in shock after the suspected killer, identified as Paul Murage Njuki, 35, stormed Kianyaga Police Station in Kirinyaga county demanding to be arrested by police and locked up in police cells for six months over the murders.

A seemingly composed Murage narrated to police officers at the station how he had gone on a murderous spree, wiping out his entire young family in a fit of rage.

His victims, he said, included his wife Millicent Muthoni, 38, and their four children; two daughters and two sons, aged between one and 13 years.

The man also confessed to sexually assaulting his eldest daughter before murdering her.

Relatives who spoke to People Daily revealed that the suspect had on several occasions attempted to rape his daughter, and that his wife had repeatedly complained about the matter to relatives.

Murage is believed to have first killed his wife before attacking the children who are said to have been fast asleep one after the other.

Pools of blood

The children, two boys and two girls, pleaded to their father to spare their lives but their pleas fell on deaf ears as he continued hacking them with the weapon.

Neighbours responding to the distress calls found the victims lying in pools of blood and sounded the alarm, attracting scores of residents, who searched for the assailant but could not find him.

The residents were furious and wanted to lynch  the suspect but luckily he had escaped,” said a resident.

After killing all his family, Murage is said to have hid the axe at a river bank in the neighbourhood before proceeding to the police station.

At the scene where he had hidden the murder weapon, police recovered some poison in a container, suggesting he could have tried to take away his life as well after the bizarre incident.

At the police station, Murage confessed peddling bhang.

When detectives moved to the scene of crime, they recovered two stones of bhang.

Kianyaga Police Station Police Commander Anthony Mbugua confirmed the incident. “He hit them with a blunt object before cutting them. He led us to where he said he hid the axe but we did not find it because of the heavy rains. We are still doing more investigations,” Mbugua said.

Residents from Kathata village, where the incident took place, revealed that Murage had quarreled with his wife on Monday evening over the latter’s failure to buy onions for the evening supper.

Dispute over onions

The woman reportedly angered Murage after she claimed that she had no money to buy the onions.

“The man wanted onions in food, but the wife insisted she did not have them,” said a resident.

The bodies of the victims were moved to Kerugoya Referral Hospital Mortuary awaiting postmortem

It took some hours to ferry the bodies from the crime scene to the mortuary because of heavy rain that pounded the area last night.

As the bodies were being taken away, relatives were overwhelmed with emotions and wept uncontrollably. 

At the scene, police also recovered a T-shirt covered with blood which they said will be used as an exhibit in the case.

Mbugua said the suspect would face murder charges after investigations are completed.