He threatened to kill us over land, brother to gang leader says

By PHILIP MUASYA

An elder brother to Kilonzo Musyoka, the suspected leader of a gang that killed 12 people at Nyanyaa village of Kitui County has revealed a family land dispute that led to the senseless killings.

Mwendwa Musyoka said Kilonzo alias Karunyu, had threatened to kill him, his wife and children then kill his other brother’s family and take possession of the family land.

On Thursday morning, Karunyu, accompanied by a machete wielding men fulfilled part of his threat. He killed his brother Munyoki alongside his three children. Unfortunately, eight more people were killed in the attack. “I know if he is not killed, he will surely kill me and my family. I will not have peace until I am assured that Karunyu is dead.” said a visibly troubled Mwendwa.

Fearing for his family’s life, Mwendwa relocated his four children and wife to undisclosed place. “When my brother makes a threat, he must accomplish it,” he said.

Mwendwa has now joined the vigilante group which is combing the armed with weapons in search of the suspected killer. Mwendwa said his young brother verbally made the threats to them during a family meeting where he demanded his share of the piece of land, which he wanted to sell and relocate to Machakos County.

When his elder brother Munyoki rejected the idea, Karunyu, who he described as a man of few words, left the meeting after offering the chilling threat.“The next time you will be meeting here, which is soon, it will be for different reasons and not land,” Mwendwa quoted his brother as saying. True to his word, when he returned a few weeks later, the whole village was left reeling in shock.

But Mwendwa told of a troubled brother who was accused of being a rapist in the village and bhang smoker and peddler. Asked how Karunyu grew up, Mwendwa goes into a brief silence then says: “He has never been a good person. He left school in class five and became a delinquent who used to smoke bhang and defile village girls. He even defiled my brother’s daughter and raped several women I can mention,” Mwendwa said.

Villagers terrorised

After a stint in the village terrorising the residents, Karunyu went to Nairobi where he graduated into hardcore crime. He was convicted for robbery with violence and murder and jailed at Kamiti Maximum security prison only to be released early last year through a presidential pardon. “He came back home saved and posing as a very religious person.

He religiously attended Redeemed Gospel Church here where he preached on Sundays. We believed he was truly a transformed person,” Mwendwa recounted.

What the family and villagers did not know is that Karunyu the ‘preacher’ would leave the village in a trail of macabre deaths only a few days later.

One night Karunyu sent his step-mother to his brothers with a chilling message. Give me the land or I kill you. “He told her he had quit salvation but will go back to his Bible after completing his jail term at Kamiti which was soon coming after doing something nasty,” he said.

Mwendwa and his brother reported to the area chief but were rebuffed. “He woke me up one night and said we must divide the piece of land or we face death before fleeing,” he said.

When Karunyu’s gang visited the village, they started by killing a known businessman at Nyanyaa market, Musyoki Syengo, his wife and two workers. It is believed they robbed them of money. They then went to Munyoki’s homestead, his brother, and butchered him with his three children. Another couple who operated a shop at Nyanyaa market was also slaughtered. The villagers launched a revenge attack and burned his wife and mother, Nzoka Mbulo, 70, alive. However Mwendwa is not worried by his mother’s death.

“She protected him throughout; even when she knew he was a criminal and posed danger. I support what the community did,” he said. Four suspected members of the gang have since been lynched. One killed on Friday at Malioni area in Waita was found with a notebook which indicated Karunyu was their ‘OCS’.

Before he was killed, the man told the youths he was from Kangundo and were planning a major attack to rescue their remaining members in hiding. Kitui Senator David Musila yesterday visited the affected families.