By DANIEL PSIRMOI and ROBERT WANYONYI

BUNGOMA: Shock has gripped Lutonyi village in the outskirts of Kimilili town, after a man was hacked to death by unknown people on Friday night.  And a woman was gang-raped by the thugs who also injured five other people, with three of them sustaining serious head injuries, in different parts of the town.

The chilling murder has sparked fears of the re-emergence of a killer gang that terrorised Bungoma County residents last year.  This latest insecurity incident comes hardly a week after a man who was terrorising residents of Khwriroro Village in the same constituency, while impersonating a police officer, was arrested.

According to family of the deceased 39-year-old man, they found his lifeless body that had deep cuts on Saturday morning at a mortuary of private hospital in the town. “A search for him early Saturday morning at the local Kimilili District Hospital, after we heard some people who had been attacked by thugs were at the medical facility, was fruitless. We found my son’s lifeless body lying at the mortuary. I do not know why they killed him yet he was a poor man with no money,” his mother said.

Bungoma County Police Commander Charles Munyoli  said police have launched investigations and they will not rest until the culprits are brought to book. Local leaders who spoke to The Sunday on Standard led by Seme Sunguti, the Executive Secretary Kenya National Union of Teachers Bungoma North branch condemned the murder and decried the rising insecurity in the constituency.