Father kills two daughters, neighbours say man had fought with wife

A suffocating smell of dip, a chemical used to wash off ticks in animals, is what welcomes you to the poorly lit single room where the lives of two innocent children came to an abrupt end.

A man, identified as Joseph Simiyu is said to have killed the two girls, who are his daughters by making them take the chemical and thereafter cleaning the foul taste left in their mouths with mangoes.

In an incident that has left residents of Shauri Moyo, Nairobi shocked, Simiyu has been described as a loving father to his family except his wife, Millicent Anyango-whom they always had fights.

At the time of the incident, Ms Anyango was not home as he had travelled to her rural home to attend a funeral only to return on Tuesday, to find her daughters’ lifeless bodies lying on the carpet that was partly littered with vomit, foam and blood.

The fights between the two that started last year had made Ms Anyango seek refuge at Mary Awuor's place, who is her friend.

However, according to neighbours, there was hope for the already broken marriage as the two had plans to solemnise their union on Sunday-but that never happened.

Mary Awuor said that until the incident, Ms Anyango had been staying with her since December 16, 2018 when they fought with her husband.

“On December 30 her mother travelled from Nyanza to come and sought out the matter but her husband would hear none of it. In fact, I was expecting her on Tuesday morning. I did not know that she changed her mind to pass by her house to see her children,” said Awuor.

Awuor said during the confrontation, Simiyu warned them that he was going to take drastic actions that will leave them regretting.

“It looks like he kept his word,” said Awuor.

Residents who were awaken by the incident Tuesday morning bayed for Simiyu’s blood, and he had to be saved from their hands by officers from the nearby Shauri Moyo police station who scattered the crowd with tear gas.

According to Douglas Ondieki, a next door neighbour, Simiyu knocked on his door at 4am and he overheard him telling his wife that some people had broken into his house on Sunday, took money and gave him and his children poison.

He said he was going to report the matter to the police.

“He (Simiyu) said he had just regained consciousness,” said Ondieki.

Ondieki described Simiyu as a loving father to his children, and this was evident in the dozens of photos plastered on the wall and on the table of him and his two daughters- Vanessa (10) and Melissa (three).

The most recent being one they took on December 25, 2018 when he took them out.

Simiyu is said to have told the neighbours a tale of how he was accosted on Sunday night by some unknown people on his way from town after dropping a customer with his motorbike.

The men, three of them, demanded he gives them money, and so he had to give them a ride up to his house where they made way with his wallet.

“We asked him why didn’t he scream if they were thieves, he said they put loud music which made it difficult for him to call for help,” said Ondieki.

Bodies of the two children were picked by Shauri Moyo police officers who later took them to Mama Lucy Hospital Mortuary.

Upon his arrest, Simiyu had stab wounds on his chest, which some neighbours claim they are self-inflicted as part of the cover up story.