Hezekiel Kagiri Njui at Nakuru High Court on March 13,2018 when he appeared to answer charges of killing his three year old son. [Photo by Kipsang Joseph/Standard]

A man was yesterday arraigned in the High Court in Nakuru for killing his three-year-old son.

Hezekiel Njui, 31, who works as a farmhand, is facing charges of killing the boy on Monday, March 12.

The boy's body was found dumped at Prayer Centre in Bahati.

According to police, the suspect had been living with the boy after he and his wife separated.

Bahati OCPD Edward Wafula said the suspect was arrested after residents discovered the child's body on a road a few metres from his house.

“We suspect that he killed the boy at his house on Sunday and fled,” Mr Wafula said.

The boy's grandmother told the police that she had left the three-year-old with the suspect on Sunday to attend a funeral meeting in the neighborhood.

When she went to check on her grandson on Monday morning, neither he nor the suspect were in the house.

“On March 12, 2018, at around 6am, she went into their house to check (on) the child, but there was nobody in the house,” read the police statement.

“While searching, she got information from a passer-by who had seen the body of a child dumped on the road about 200 metres away, wrapped with blankets,” the police report said.

Police who went to the scene said the child had been strangled with a belt and a nail had been driven into his right leg.

After news about the killing spread, residents of Free Area confronted the suspect on Monday afternoon and took him to the Free Area sub-county commissioner’s office where he was presented to Bahati police.

He appeared before Justice Maureen Odero yesterday and was informed of the charges he faced.

The court ordered a mental assessment report before he could plead to the charges.

The case is set for April 5.