A high school student was on Monday night beaten to death by irate villagers in Kiharu, Murang’a County moments after the body of a missing 12-year old girl was found in his room.
Duncan Wakahiu, a Form One student at Gituto Secondary School, was lynched after the body of Jecinta Wambui, a Class five pupil at Kirogo Primary School, was discovered hidden under his bed.
Reports indicate Jecinta Wambui had been left in the house when the suspect picked her up.
“I returned home and didn’t find Wambui. I asked some children who were playing nearby and they told me that she had left with Duncan Wakahiu,” the sister, Grace Kabura said.
Kabura then requested the children to show her the boy’s home, where she found the suspect’s parents and told them she was looking for Wambui who had been seen going there.
According to Kabura, when the parents summoned Wakahiu and questioned him about the girl’s whereabouts, he claimed that he had sent her to the shop to buy paraffin but she had not come back.
However, the parents suspected something was fishy and decided to search for the girl in his room. After he was ordered to part with the keys to his room, he fled to a neighbouring village from where he was cornered and lynched.
When the parents gained access to his room, they discovered Wambui’s body under the bed.
A resident who was interviewed claimed that the minor was strangled with a tie.
The girl’s father, Josphat Chege, was inconsolable saying his daughter did not deserve such a beastly act. He told reporters that his eldest daughter had called him at work when she discovered that Wambui was missing.
When he rushed home, he found people wailing and that is when he discovered that his younger daughter had been murdered.
Murang’a acting county commander of police Mr David Kandie said a post-mortem will be conducted to establish if the boy had raped the girl.
“The public is advised that in future they should take the suspect to the nearest police station instead of taking the law into their hands,” said Kandie.
