Five sisters murdered over village land row

Five little sisters have been brutally murdered and their bodies dumped in a car outside their home, in a dispute over land.

They appeared to have been strangled and one of the girls had been slashed across the face.

The killers struck when the girls were alone in their home on a remote sugar plantation, on Sunday.

Their father, mechanic Moses Washika, was away in Nairobi buying spare parts for the car in which their bodies were found.

Their mother, Mrs Linah Washika, was spending the day at church in Mumias.

The girls' bodies were discovered piled on the rear seat of the car – a yellow Hyundai belonging to a relative – shortly before the father returned to the family's home in Ematsakha Village, in Butere-Mumias District.

Mrs Washika, who was heavily pregnant, was summoned from church and gently told the tragic news.

The shock sent her into labour and less than a day after the dreadful discovery, she gave birth to the family's sixth child, the family's first boy.

She named him Taabu, the Kiswahili word for sorrow.

The girls, who died on Sunday, were found by Mr Washika's colleague when he returned a battery he had borrowed. When he saw the family's house was empty he put the battery in the car, which is when he came across the children's bodies.

Horrified by what he had found, he went to look for Mrs Washika in church and told her to accompany him home, saying only that she was needed there. When she arrived, she was confronted by the terrible scene of her daughters all lying dead in the car.

That of the youngest child, three-year-old Oldad Deldad, lay across those of the other four – Polycas Burini, aged 13, Sidi Deldad, 10, Betty Deldad, seven, and Basilia Deldad, five.

Burini, Sidi and Betty were pupils at Shower Academy in Mumias Town, in standards seven, five and two.

Mrs Washika recalled yesterday: "I was shocked to find a crowd of people milling around the vehicle outside our compound. I knew something serious had happened to my children, but not to that magnitude."

She had left on Sunday morning to attend Ekero Pentecostal Fellowship Church, in Mumias.

And she went on: "I never expected this to happen to my children. I woke up early and woke the children. I told them to go back to bed since it was chilly outside. I left after preparing a meal for them and hoped to see them in the evening. They are responsible young girls and I always assign them duties." 

Mrs Washika said her children were playful and liked to stay together.

Burini was caring, and that was why she was left with her younger sisters to take care of them in the absence of parents, she said.

All the girls had performed well at school and were promising pupils, she added.

Police said yesterday they still had no clear motive for the murders.

However, Mr Washika believes a dispute over land was at the heart of the killings.

All 30 of his chickens have been killed – he believes they were poisoned – and he told the Nation he had recently received threats, which he had not taken seriously.

He said: "If this land was the cause of all these, then I would have loved to leave this place with my children rather than get into this."

And he added: "I cannot understand why somebody went for my children who are too young to understand any disputes that may have existed between us and the killers."

Police have arrested a man and were last night questioning him about the murders.

Provincial police chief David Chesimeti confirmed a man had been arrested. He was accompanied by acting area police boss Macharia King'ori, who said police were treating the deaths as murders but added a motive was yet to be established.

He appealed to the public to volunteer information that would lead to the arrest of the killers and warned them against attacking people they thought were suspects.

Senior district officer Wisley Kiprotich told a crowd at the scene to observe restraint and help the police.

Area chief Hussein Osore also told the public to show restraint.