A 24 year old woman died together with her two children on Sunday night while a third child escaped miraculously, after the woman threw her three children and herself into Nzoia River at Makutano bridge at the border of Kakamega and Bungoma counties.
According to the seven year old girl Lucy Akeng’o who managed to escape, their mother Winnie Kasaya lied to them that they were going to the shop at night but on reaching Makutano bridge she ordered her and her four year old sister to close their eyes before she threw them in the river.
Later the mother who was carrying their two year old brother on her back also plunged herself in the river with the baby still tied on her back.
Lucy, who is a standard two pupil at Mbaya primary school in Lugari sub county said the water pushed her to the bank of the river where she got hold of a tree. She cried for help before she was rescued by a good Samaritan who had responded to her distress call.
According to Mr. Joseph Mung’onye, who is a Nyumba Kumi official at Luyeshe village in Sirakalu sub location, Tongareni sub county in Bungoma county, while returning home from Lugari sub county in Kakamega county at about 9pm he spotted some light at the bridge but on drawing closer, it went off and there was nobody around.
He said when he reached home about 100 meters from the river he heard a voice of a child crying for help, “I rushed to the river and found this young girl holding on a tree at the bank of the river and I rescued her.”
According to Ms Alice Magoma she has been living with her sister in Sirakalu for the past one week after she had a domestic conflict with her husband Victor Mulama at Mbaya village in Lumakanda location Lugari sub county where they have been living.
She said before her sister decided to take that heinous decision, her husband had visited them earlier in the day but left without arriving at an amicable solution.
She added that their differences were fuelled further after the sister mistakenly sent her husband a wrong text message meant for another person and remained unapologetic despite the husband insisting to know the intended recipient of the text.
She said later in the evening she asked her sister to prepare supper as she left to pick some items in the neighborhood but when she returned she didn’t find her togrther with her children. She then decided to prepare supper herself thinking she was around and will return but she never came back and she received the shocking news.
The neighbours back in Lumakanda said the two have always been in engrossed in a domestic conflict, and the wife to left together with her children about two weeks ago.
The husband Victor Mulama who reached the scene on Monday was overwhelmed by grief and fainted and he could not talk to the press.