Son burns father beyond recognition over quest to get inheritance

Shocked Lemayat residents at the scene where Bernard Kiprono Siango burned his 70-year-old father beyond recognition in inheritance row [Standard]

A man from Lemayat village in Kipkelion East constituency burned his 70-year-old father beyond recognition after the old man allegedly declined to grant him a portion of the family’s three-acre piece of land as an inheritance.

The deceased's neighbour, Joseph Koech claimed that Bernard Kiprono Siango, a wayward school dropout, had for a period of time demanded that his father, Donald James Siango allocate him land but in vain.

"The heated arguments ended drastically today when the young man locked his father in the semi-permanent timber house and set it ablaze. Our efforts to put out the fire was fruitless,” he said.

The deceased, a widower had been living with his son for the last two weeks upon arrival from his other farm in Kisii.

“We suspect that the young man must have killed his father before setting the house on fire because since as it was burning, the deceased did not make any noise calling for help," said Koech.

When The Standard, arrived the scene overlooking Chepseon trading centre, the rubble was still smouldering.

First responders did not manage to salvage anything. Underneath the caved iron sheets, was a destroyed a gas cooker, twisted window panes and destroyed bags of cement.

At the farm which cost the deceased his life, were hundreds of cabbages he had planted with an eye to cashing in during the current dry season whereby vegetables are scarce.

Kericho County Police Commander James Mugera, said that when police rushed to the scene, they found that the house had been razed to the ground the owner burned beyond recognition.

He added that they had launched a manhunt for the deceased's son.

"The suspect was with his father before the incident but was missing from the homestead when the police got there. Efforts to trace him were fruitless," he said.

The body of the deceased was removed to Kericho County Hospital mortuary pending autopsy.