A pastor with a local church in Likuyani sub county was lynched by an angry mob after being suspected to be a livestock thief in Dalisu village Soy Sub location.
Protus Shichoro Imbachila alias ‘Mkorino’ who is a pastor at Muriola African Brotherhood church was attacked and killed by the angry residents at around 12:00am Thursday night.
According to the village elders Ibrahim Mayo and Stephen Mukhongo of Dalisu and Lumino villages respectively, the man of cloth was attacked after he failed to explain what he was doing in the area at that wee hours of the night yet he wasn’t a resident of the area.
“I received a call from a villager that there was a man who had been attacked by residents, I contacted my colleague Mr. Mukhongo and rushed to the scene where we found him lying on the ground unconscious,” said Mayo.
The two village elders said their efforts to reach police officers to rescue and rush him to the hospital were futile as the officer commanding Likuyani police station (OCS) could not be reached on his cell phone.
“We decided to go and report at Nangili police station in the neighbouring Kongoni location but while still at the station we received information that he had passed on,” said Mukhongo.
The local administrators said the man who was using a motorbike was found with a machete, pliers and a rope which he had inserted in one of his gumboots.
They said the area has been witnessing a series of livestock theft in the recent past and could be the reason for his lynching after being suspected to be one of the thieves.
However, according to the deceased’s second wife Hellen Kiyombe her husband wasn’t a criminal and was mistakenly killed.
She said apart from being a pastor he had been hired to collect milk from farmers and take to Soy farmers cooperative and also operated as a boda boda.
She said before he met his death her husband had spent the day doing his normal daily activities before he left in the evening to go to the first wife.
Confirming the incident Soy sub location assistant chief Bonivanture Lugado said the man suffered deep machete cuts and other visible injuries.
Lugado has warned residents against taking laws into their hands and instead asked them to hand all suspects to police officers for an appropriate action to be taken against them.
The body was removed from the scene by police officers and taken to the Kitale mortuary for postmortem as they launched investigations into the incident.