Man beheaded as he sought funds to pick son's Starehe calling letter

Tharaka constituency last year’s Kenya Certificate of Primary Education (KCPE) top pupil, Gitumi Mwithi who scored 400 marks is likely to miss joining Form One due to lack of school fees after his father was beheaded on Monday over alleged ancestral land ownership conflict.   

Gitumi who sat for KCPE at Karou Primary School was called by Starehe Boys’ Centre to pick the admission letter but his father, Julius Mwithi was murdered as he sought money for transport to Nairobi.

The boy is also likely to miss the chance at the prestigious school for failing to pick the admission letter or even for reporting late due to the inconvenience.

Tharaka South Sub- County police commander Margaret Magiri confirmed the murder incident which occurred on Monday at around 8 pm at Mwanyani village in Mwanyani location and said police had launched a manhunt for the suspects.

She said after receiving the information from the chief Mwanyani locationSamuel Mucee Mbutu, police rushed to the scene and found the body of Mwithi lying in a pool of blood.

“Police took the body to Marimanti Level Four Hospital mortuary awaiting postmortem and also launched a manhunt for the suspects who went into hiding after the incident,” said Ms Magiri.

The officer urged members of the public to volunteer information to police spotting the suspects so that they can be and face murder charges.

The deceased’s wife, Grace Gakethi said the five who are family members, two men and three women came to their home at around 8 pm and pretended that they had come for a peaceful dialogue over the 20-acre piece of land which has an active court case.

But before they even sat down, they knocked the 60-year-old man down before hacking him to death.

Ms Gakethi said she was in the house and when they started hacking her husband, she dashed out and ran into the bush screaming. They went after her but turned back after some neighbors started calling to know what the problem was.

“The villagers responded in big numbers but by the time they arrived, my husband had already been killed and his killers vanished into the darkness,” Ms Gakethi recounted.

Mr Evans Kibaaro, the deceased’s son said the land conflict started a long time ago after their grandfather died and the alleged suspects together with their father, Samuel Mugao who also died several years ago, vowed to take the whole 20 acres.

He said after his late father went to court and they sensed that the ruling was likely to order for sharing of the land, they started threatening to kill them all.

“We are worried because they killed my father as they have been threatening and we don’t know who the next victim will be,” said Mr Kibaaro.

He said after the incident, they noted that the suspects had sold all their livestock probably in readiness for the murder.

Kibaaro appealed to Starehe Boys’ High School administration to reserve the boy’s vacancy and if possible, allow him to report late or even without fees.