An elderly couple from Khayanga village, Kongoni location in Likuyani Sub County are nursing serious machete injuries after being attacked by their son in-law on Wednesday night.
According to Jane Kiptum she was in the kitchen at about 8pm preparing an evening meal and when she was about to take the food to the main house she bumped into her son in-law Daniel Kosgei Kiplagat who was standing at the kitchen door and without uttering a word he attacked her with a machete inflicting deep cuts on her head and hands and chopped off her fingers on both hands.
She said he just targeted her head and she sustained hand injuries trying to block him cutting the head thus loosing the fingers.
“He came with intention to kill but I thank God I am still alive and I think he had targeted my daughter but since we look alike he thought I was the one,” she said adding that the incident occurred immediately after the targeted daughter Mercy Chemaiyo had gone to the toilet.
After injuring his mother in-law Kosgei went to the main house and also attacked his father in-law Mzee Jackson Simatwa Mong’et.
Mr. Mong’et said he was relaxing in his bed listening to music and waiting for supper, before he heard noise from outside. “The music was playing loudly and I couldn’t immediately hear my wife crying for help however when I reduced the volume and heard some noise I thought it was coming from the road that passes next to my compound but after listening carefully I realized it was coming from the kitchen. That’s when I walk up and rushed to go and see what was going on,” he said.
The 78 year old man said immediately he stepped into the sitting room he met the machete wielding son in-law who was heading towards the bedroom.
He also attacked him cutting him thrice on the left hand and once the right hand. The son-in-law ran away, to a neighbour’s maize farm. Luckily there was a young man passing on the road who saw him hiding in the maize farm and when neighbours responded to the distress call, the young man directed revealed his hiding spot, and they attacked the culprit. After searching him, they found he had a panga and a knife hidden in his jacket.
The suspect was so daring that when he spotted his wife in the crowd that was beating him, he jumped on her and tried to strangle her but he was overpowered by the crowd who handed him over to police officers from Matunda station.
The couple was later rushed to Likuyani sub county hospital for treatment.
According to Ms. Chemaiyo since marrying Kiplagat five years ago she has never lived in peace as he has been beating her regularly.
She said her drunkard husband had reached a point of selling household property to go and drink and then return to abuse her.
She said she has on several occasion engaged elders from both sides who after talking to him he promised to change but the situation has persisted. Tired of the nagging problem, she decided to pack her belongings and along with her two children, she went back to her parents early last month.
Prior to the Wednesday night incident, Kosgei is said to have packed kitchen, utensils, blankets and his clothes and dumped them in his father in-laws compound on Saturday night.
According to Mr. Mong’et he was slashing round the compound he found a fully loaded sack near the fence few meters from the house.
He said at first he thought somebody had stolen things elsewhere and hid the there and as was thinking of informing security officer he decided to check and establish what was inside although there was also a blanket hanged on the line.
“When I opened the sack which had been tied with a rope on the end I found it was carrying kitchen utensils and clothes which my daughter identified the utensils as well as clothes which she said belonged to her husband,” said Mong’et.
