A man has slashed his wife to death and later hanged himself at their home in Makunga village, Trans Nzoia County on Sunday following a quarrel over a suspected love triangle.
A neighbour, Kennedy Barasa, said that he heard a loud scream from the couple’s house at around 3am Sunday that prompted him and other residents to rush to the scene.
DOOR LOCKED
But they found the door locked from inside and Mr Barasa, who is a welder, had to break in using a grinder.
“To our shock, we found the woman lying in a pool of blood on the bed and the husband had hanged himself using a rope in another room,” he said.
Mr Barasa immediately informed the police who arrived at the scene a while later.
According to Chief Selina Upande, the man, identified as Stephen Kagumo, and his wife Caren Chebet previously never had any domestic fights.
Ms Upande told the Nation that prior to the Sunday morning incident, Mr Kagumo had arrived at his home at around 9pm after watching football matches and later a fight ensued at around 3am.
COMMOTION
She explained that according to the wife’s sister, who was staying with them and their 18-year-old child, she was woken up by commotion between her sister and brother-in-law in their bedroom.
“When she rushed to the next room she found her brother-in-law with a machete in his hand quarrelling with the wife. When she inquired what was happening, the man threatened to kill her and that forced her to rush outside the house,” said the administrator.
The couple was living in a rented two-roomed house that they had also converted into a shop.
LOVE TRIANGLE
According to the neighbours who talked to the Nation, the incident was as a result of an alleged suspicious love affair.
Confirming the deaths, Trans Nzoia County Police Commander Ayub Ali said Mr Kagumo attacked his wife with a machete, hacking her several times.
“It is so unfortunate that a husband can kill his wife in a heinous manner and then hang himself. In this kind of situation, I urge couples to always tell their problems to someone to prevent such incidents,” he said.
The bodies were taken to the Kitale County Referral Hospital mortuary.