Kakamega man killed for stealing 4Kgs of maize

A twenty-one-year-old man has been killed for allegedly stealing 4 Kilograms of maize and a shirt from his uncle.

The victim Brevan Musieka has been working for Martin Musieka who caught him with the stolen items and beat him to death.

To conceal the incident, the suspect dug a grave in his banana plantation but was ambushed by neighbours while trying to bury the body on Thursday night.

The neighbours alerted locals of Shimalavandu village who expressed their disgust by torching the suspect 3-bedroom house before turning to his 3-acre sugar cane plantation and a vehicle belonging to a neighbour.

“How do you kill a person who has been working for you because of having taken maize? We will not allow the suspect to come back here. He should have talked to the victim rather than killing him,” a neighbour, a relative, Helen Mbogo said.

She said to make the matter worse accused was caught trying to bury the body in a bid to cover up the murder.

“Before we learned of the victim death, residents had raised eyebrows of his whereabouts but the suspect chased them from his compound and told us that his nephew was alright and would return home that day only for us to be told later in the evening that he was dead,” she said.

 Police were forced to shoot in the air to disperse the angry villagers who wanted to lynch the suspect.

The body has been taken to Kakamega County Referral Mortuary.

The western regional commander, Moses Ombati warned the public from taking the law into their hands by destroying people’s property to fulfil their traditions.

“We should not cause harm to others in the name of conducting traditions. I urge residents to always report the matter to authorities or take to court instead of burning other people property and committing murder,” Ombati said.

He urged locals to inform the police of criminal activity and even take the matter to court instead of causing more harm to others.