Woman narrates how brother-in-law killed her family

By PHILIP MUASYA

Ms Peninah Munyoki gasps for breath, tears rolling down her cheeks as she recalls how her husband and three children were killed.

It was Thursday at around 2am when the gang of five men led by Kilonzo Musyoka alias Karunyu, her husband’s young brother raided their home.

“They broke the door and shouted that we give them money. My husband took cover under the bed as they dragged me outside,” she says. Once outside, one of the gang members slashed her on the forehead as others flushed her husband Munyoki Musyoka out.

The gang then descended on him with machetes. “My brother-in-law ordered them to kill him. As he tried to flee, they cut him on the head and leg. He fell down a few metres where he died,” she said. All this time, her children Mwende (16), Ngui (13) and Muimi (eight) who were sleeping in an opposite house had been woken up by the commotion. One by one, the gang slaughtered the hapless children.

“I slipped away as they were slashing my children. I am haunted by their deaths,” she said. When The Standard on Saturday caught up with her, Peninah could hardly walk without the support of her neighbours. She stared blankly at a recent photo of her husband and children and looked away, sobbing. Since Karunyu was released from Kamiti, she said they lived peacefully except for a “small domestic quarrel” last year. “I think it was all about money,” she added. A kilometre away at Nzomo Mengi’s homestead, his five children are huddled under a shade, looking into a bleak future. Their parents were butchered by the gang.

Paul Nzomo, 16, is the eldest son who escaped with an arrow wound. “They came at about 2am and started banging the door to my parents’ house. I could clearly hear the voice of Karunyu demanding money,” said the boy. By this time, Paul and his young brother had escaped through a window. Their parents screamed as the gang slashed them with machetes. “I felt a sharp pain pierce my little finger as I fled, more arrows flew over our heads but God saved us,” he said before breaking into sobs.

Paul, who is a KCPE candidate at Muono Primary School, is now worried about his future education prospects. The children are now in the hands of their 88-year-old grandmother Mutuu Mengi. “What can I do for them? I leave everything to God,” she said, with her chin resting on her palm.