A 75-year-old man was on Monday evening hacked to death by known assailants after he was allegedly caught stealing sugarcane from a farm in Buyanji village, Trans Nzoia County.
Mr Gabriel Mukhinde Wekesa, a village elder, told the Nation that the man, identified as Edward Khalakai Wanjala, was hacked on the head with a machete after allegedly being found stealing sugarcane.
“I received information that there was a person who had been found stealing sugarcane in a farm and that he had been killed by two young,” he said.
Irate residents who claimed the victim was innocent torched the houses of the suspected assailants.
SUSPECTS FLEE
The suspects had already fled the scene after the incident.
“The old man, who had lived for more than 30 years in this village, has been depending on cutting grass in order to put food on the table. They have killed an innocent person and dumped his body on the road,” lamented Suzan Nanjala, one of the residents.
Police who visited the scene found Mr Wanjala’s lifeless body lying on the road with sugarcane sticks beside him.
Kwanza OCPD Alphonse Kimanzi confirmed the incident and told the Nation that the body had deep cuts in the head, right leg and bruises on the back. He said it was moved Kitale County Referral Hospital mortuary.
“We warn those who tend to take the law into their own hands to cease from doing so. We are not taking this matter lightly and we are not resting until the two suspects are apprehended,” said Mr Kimanzi.
