Woman kills mother over porridge

Shock and disbelief gripped a village in Kisii County after a 60-year old woman was allegedly hacked to death by her daughter-in-law, following a disagreement over a cup of porridge.

Witnesses claimed that Truphena Kwamboka, 25, hacked her mother-in-law Clemencia Kwamboka to death with a sharp knife in Marani District, Kisii on Monday evening.

The two who had just returned from their day’s work disagreed over the manner in which a cup of porridge was to be shared.

Confirming the incident, Marani OCPD Benjamin Kimwere said Truphena did not want the cup of porridge shared with another child.

Kimwere said Truphena who got married in the homestead after the death of the deceased’s son in May last year did not want the porridge shared with her other grandson from another son.

While she insisted that the porridge be given to her child, her mother-in-law disagreed with her, saying that the porridge be shared between the two children.

Truphena, however, did not convince her mother-in-law as her child did not take the porridge, which was taken by the other child. This did not go down well with Truphena who argued that her child, who was younger than the other one, should have been given the first priority.

Burning with rage, Truphena waited till nightfall when everybody was asleep and hacked the elderly woman to death.

“This is bizarre to us, especially for the two since they seemed to get along well,” said a neighbour, adding that the argument seemed petty in the first place.

Kimwere told The Standard on the telephone that investigations will be carried out to establish if there was any deep-seated hatred between the two.

“What we got is from the scene of crime but we will carry our own investigation to establish the truth,” he said. He termed it unfortunate that a small disagreement had caused the death of the elderly woman.

Attempts by neighbours to lynch the suspect were thwarted by police who rushed to the scene immediately. The suspect, Kimwere said, was arrested and taken to Rioma Police Station and would be taken to court awaiting charges today.