Photo/JOSEPH KANYI Naromoru police officers remove burnt bodies from the smouldering debris of a house at Gatuanyaga Village in Nyeri County on March 2, 2012. This was after the owner, Corporal David Ndai, set it on fire, burning two of his children to death. He was later shot dead by the police.
By JOHN NJAGI jnjagi@ke.nationmedia.com
Posted Friday, March 2 2012 at 22:30
Posted Friday, March 2 2012 at 22:30
IN SUMMARY
- Soldier’s wife says her husband, who was suffering from a mental illness, had threatened to eliminate all of them
A Kenya Army soldier burned two of his children to death after setting their house on fire at Narumoru in Nyeri County.
Consequently, police officers shot Corporal David Ndai Kariuki, 44, dead after he allegedly attacked them as they tried to rescue the burning children.
Villagers said the velocity of the bullet tossed the soldier into the flames and he too burnt to death.
The children’s mother, Ms Mary Nyambura, 39, had escaped with their 17-year-old daughter, Mercy Rose Wangechi, after her husband threatened to kill everyone in the family.
Their neighbour, Mr Macharia Githuni, said that police shot the soldier after he slashed one of the officer’s with a panga.
Denied the shooting
The army man was attached to Kenyatta Barracks in Gilgil and was on sick leave at his Gatuanyaga Village home due to a mental illness.
Questions are likely to emerge over why five armed police officers were unable to disarm the army man, who was armed with a panga, an axe and stones.
“The police fired at least three times at the solder after realising they would not gain access to the house,” Mr Githuni said.
Nyeri police boss Kirunya Limbitu denied the shooting of the soldier by his officers, saying, he died after he threw himself into the fire.
He said the man rushed back into the burning house after realising that he would be overwhelmed by the police and residents.
Mr Limbitu said a corporal, who heads the Narumoru community patrol base, sustained slight injuries after the soldier cut him on the left hand with a panga as he tried to wrestle with him.
He said the man had been guarding the burning house to ensure police and neighbours did not rescue the burning children. Ms Nyambura said she was sleeping when her husband woke her up and declared that they would all die.
On asking him what was happening, the man repeated that they would all die.
It was at that point that the father of five called his eldest daughter to his bedroom, but the mother restrained her, asking her husband of 18 years to dress up first.
On insisting they pray, her husband slapped her hard, forcing her to dash out of the house with her daughter to ask for neighbours’ assistance, Ms Nyambura said.
It was while they were away that the man set the house on fire.
Before killing the children, he vented his anger on the family cow, slashing it into pieces. Seven goats and five sheep died in the fire.
Ms Nyambura said her husband had been suffering from a mental illness since 2010, making him violent at his place of work.
He was admitted to hospital in Nairobi before joining his family.
The wife said that he was also suffering from epilepsy, a condition that was detected in 2001.
Ms Nyambura said it was because of her husband’s mental illness that he killed the children.
The end of the devil
“I pray God to give me the strength. I consider this the end of the devil and the beginning of God’s manifestations to give me strength to take care of the remaining children,” said Ms Nyambura, who sat the Form Four national exams last year and scored a B plain grade.
The soldier has two other children who were away in school.
The village was in shock and many stood in silence looking at the burnt house and shaking their heads.
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