Hell’s Gate trail of macabre killings leave locals guessing
A 38-year-old part-time shoe cobbler was beheaded in a suspected ritualistic attack in Naivasha.
The area continues to gain notoriety for odd occurrences that baffle all and sundry.
In the latest incident, a casual worker was butchered on Saturday night.
Talk of cultism is rife, with residents of Hell’s Gate ward in Naivasha, Nakuru County calling on the police to heighten surveillance and find the killers.
Unsolved murders and criminal activities are synonymous with the densely populated, crime-prone areas of Mirera and Karagita.
The macabre killing of John Karanja, a part-time shoe cobbler, rekindled memories of the gruesome murder last year of a woman, whose body parts were carted away.
Karanja was accosted on his way home, butchered and his head taken away.
His bicycle lay beside him, with a piece of meat he was taking home still wrapped in manila paper.
“We can only equate his killing to an act of cultism. Why else would his assailants take his head,” posed his distraught brother Dedan Kariuki.
“Despite being a loner, my brother was also a peaceful man. If they (attackers) were interested in stealing, they would have taken the bicycle…they did not.”
Shaken villagers forced the police to bring a sniffer dog to help trace the missing head.
Had accompanied her grandmother to church
Despite the instant optimism, the head was not found, dampening the daylong search.
Scared women vowed never to venture out at night lest they fall victim to the heartless killers.
The crime scene was described by villagers as a “dangerous footpath” where several people have been attacked, some escaping death narrowly.
“I was attacked last year on my way home by four armed men. I tried to fight them off, but I was overpowered and forced to surrender all my cash,” said an elderly man at the scene.
After the frightening moment, he said, he vowed never again to use the path, which is sandwiched between lines of cactus on each side, making it easy for criminals to waylay their unsuspecting targets.
Nyumba Kumi member Peter Chege was also distressed by the killing, urging police to apprehend the culprits.
“We are worried by the killing, which I strongly believe is ritualistic,” he told journalists.
In 2016, similar incidents were reported, with fears of cultism predominant following the defilement and macabre killing of two three-year-old girls.
The two went missing on separate dates before their bodies were found at a dumpsite in an estate.
One of the two girls was lured from her home by a stranger while her mother was inside the house.
Her body was found at the dumpsite a week later.
In the second incident, the girl had accompanied her grandmother to church before she disappeared.
