Kakamega Governor Wycliffe Oparanya has ordered the immediate evacuation of the family of a man suspected to have killed a 9-year-old-girl, Shirlyne Mwanzia, in Kakamega town last week. Addressing the residents, Governor Oparanya condemned the incident and called on the police to take stern action and ensure that the culprits are brought to book.
He expressed surprise that the person suspected to have brutally murdered a class seven girl in 2014 was still the suspect in this current case, wondering how the case opened in 2014 with evidence had not been concluded.
“From 2014, the police arrested the suspect and released him on bond, he was to appear in Court this year for the 2014 case. For four years what evidence is still being sought?” Oparanya questioned.
He further blamed the police for the release of the suspect’s father saying that they should be having some information that could lead to his arrest.
“It is a shame to the police department that with all this evidence they can say that the court released the suspect’s father. somebody you live with can’t commit a crime without your knowledge,” added the Governor.
The minor disappeared from their family compound on Sunday 11th March 2018, as she was playing with her two siblings. Efforts to trace her ended tragically on Friday 16th after her body was discovered drowned in a water tank within the suspect’s house.
At the time she met her death, the 9-year-old daughter to Oswald and Colleta Mwanzia was a pupil at St. Joseph’s Academy, Kakamega and a resident at scheme, a plot in the outskirts of Kakamega town.
The suspect was their immediate neighbour who lived a door away from the affected family’s house. According to the parents of the deceased, their efforts to get help from the security officers were futile after they insisted they had to wait for 24 hours to get any help.
It took them almost a whole week to record a statement at the station and thus lamented that their case was not handled with emergency.
The Governor expressed his dissatisfaction with how the police handled the matter after the deceased’s mother reported her disappearance to the law enforcers adding that had they been proactive enough, the minor would not have met her untimely death.
He cautioned the police against sleeping on the job as that would encourage incidences where members of the public take law into their hands.
Similar incidences have been reported in the area since 2014, where a class 7 girl at Bondeni primary school was brutally murdered and her body parts scattered in different places within town.
Two other girls, one in kindergarten and the other in class three, have also been victims of brutal killings in the same scheme estate. The suspect still remains at large. The Governor was accompanied by other government leaders.