Mother of six murdered children surrenders to police

By Cyrus Ombati

The mother of five children who were found murdered in their house at Nairobi’s Korogocho slum on Thursday has been arrested after she surrendered to the police.

The woman reported to a police station on Thursday night where she “expressed shock at the killing of her children”.

“She has said she is equally shocked… she claims she learnt of the whole thing from the media,” Nairobi Provincial Police Officer Moses Ombati said.

Detectives handling the case said they are questioning her to know if she was involved in the incident.

“As at now we cannot tell if she is guilty or not, we can use her as a witness or charge her,” police said.

The bodies of the children aged between two and 10 were discovered in their house by neighbours at about 11 am on Thursday laid on their parents’ bed in order of their age.

One of them appeared to have been stabbed in the chest, while the rest were likely poisoned because they had foam oozing from the mouths.

The father of the children Boniface Omar Ouma is still at large. The youngest boy lay on the left side with a stab wound in his chest while the rest did not have a physical wound.

Police said they recovered a bottle with poison an indication the children were poisoned.

The dead included three boys and two girls. They all wore innocent faces and there were bloodstains in the house, which police believe were from the boy who had a wound in the chest.

Ouma who hails from Gem in Siaya has been earning his living by selling traditional medicine in the area.

He initially stayed in Huruma estate before moving to Korogocho two months ago, neighbours said.

Ms Everlyne Awuor who is in custody has been earning her living by washing clothes in various homes in the neighbouring residences.

The motive behind the incident was yet to be established.

It is the neighbours who detected the killing of the children after they failed to show up and play with others in the neighbourhood.

And when they knocked Ouma’s door they did not get any response forcing them to peep through the window when they noticed the bodies piled together on bed.

A neighbour Adan Noor said the door of the house was not locked and when they pushed it opened forcing them to alert police.

Starehe deputy OCPD Joseph Gichangi said preliminary findings showed four of the children were poisoned while one was killed by stabbing.

Neighbours said the couple had been quarrelling in the past days and Ms Awuor had been away for almost two weeks.

She came back on Wednesday night and on Thursday night the children were found dead with both parents missing.

Jamila Akoth said the couple has been involved in a brawl for long and their relationship was on and off.

“They moved from Huruma to this area while quarelling over domestic issues. We do not know what happened that all their children are not dead,” said Akoth.

The bodies were later moved to the mortuary as  the police launched a hunt on the couple.