Suspicious teacher goes bananas over barmaid

By George Olwenya

A secondary school teacher was recently beaten senseless before being handed over to Siaya police when he attempted to set his lover’s house ablaze.

The jilted lover had, at midnight, stormed the house of his girlfriend who is a barmaid in Siaya town with a can of kerosene but changed his mind when he was about to strike a match.

The middle-aged teacher was angered because he believed the barmaid had been cheating on him yet he had been paying her house rent. They had also planned to

get married.

The incident, which is still the talk of the town, took place at Karapul Estate. Neighbours vented their anger on the teacher who claimed he was merely trying to win back his lover following a petty difference.

settle difference

The girl is a barmaid in a leading drinking joint in Siaya town.

Their one-year relationship had of late run into problems and on the material day, he decided to visit the girl at her place of work to settle their differences.

He, however, could not accomplish his mission since she was busy with customers and failed to give him audience, forcing him to leave.

He went back to his house and called the girl on the phone after which she promised to show up later in the night. He waited in vain.

Her failure to turn up so angered the teacher that he decided to burn her house.

According to the teacher, who turned himself in to the police, he was forced to go to his lover’s house in the middle of the night to confirm if she was in.

warning phone call

Recalling the events that landed him in police cells, the teacher said after a long wait in his house, he armed himself with half a litre of kerosene and went in search of his loved one.

He tiptoed to her house in the darkness and after putting his ear to the wall for sometime, he realised that she was not home.

This angered him because he suspected that she had gone with another man. That is when he phoned to warn that her house would soon be on fire.

The teacher then forced his way into the house through the window and after putting on the lights, he sprinkled kerosene all over intent on setting it ablaze.

"My conscience, however, would not allow me to strike the matchbox that I was holding in my hands. On second thought I decided I could not do such a thing to someone I loved so much," he told a senior police officer while pleading for leniency.

The teacher said instead he woke up the girl’s sister, who is a neighbour, for advice.

But the loud conversation between the two woke up neighbours who upon hearing his story threatened to teach him a lesson for disrupting their sleep.

The neighbours set upon him with kicks and blows. His efforts to escape their wrath proved futile when the mob caught up with him in his house.

stopped working

A neighbour who went to his rescue called the police on his mobile phone and the teacher was rescued from the angry mob.

The barmaid, however, maintains that their relationship had ended and she did not understand why the man was still after her.

"We were lovers for nearly a year and he promised to marry me but he failed to ensure I stopped working at the bar as we had agreed," she told the police.