How a father, four sons killed neighbour over land dispute

A machete. (Courtesy)

When Joseph Kasarari, 50 was interrupted during his routine hair cut at his home in Elementaita, Gilgil on Thursday last week, he didn’t know he was being set up for his killing.

Kasarari has been having a long-standing land dispute that was coming up for a ruling in December this year but his neighbour and sons ended his life in the most gruesome manner.

Agustin Mbece, a nephew, says immediately after finishing the haircut, the neighbour convinced Kasarari to follow him to a point where they were to meet elders over the dispute.

“Kasarari asked me and his sons to accompany him. Instead of elders, we found the neighbour’s four sons. The four viciously attacked him with machetes as their father watched,” said Mbece.

A shocked Mbece and the deceased’s sons said they were unarmed and rushed to Kasarari’s rescue while screaming, attracting the attention of other villagers who responded immediately.

“The man and his sons realized that people were coming in numbers. They all sped off. When we got to the scene, our uncle had already died with deep cuts everywhere,” he said.

Titus Ngulungu, a government pathologist who conducted a postmortem on the deceased’s body painted a picture of a victim who had no chance of surviving the attack.

“The deceased had multiple cuts from a sharp object. The cut on the neck caused a partial decapitation of the head. One hand was chopped off at the wrist. We have recorded more than ten strikes on the head, hands and legs,” said Dr Ngulungu.

“The cause of death is the partial decapitation of the head because it involved the spinal cord and injury to major blood vessels. He lost a lot of blood. This was a homicide case,” the pathologist said.

Gilgil Sub county Police Commander Winstone Mwakio says the matter was under investigations with two suspects already in police custody.

“It was a shocking incident to everyone. We have arrested two of the suspects, a father and his son. Three other sons involved are on the run and we are still pursuing them,” said Mwakio.

The policeman said investigators had established that the killing was linked to a land dispute.

“We are confident that soon we shall catch up with all those involved in the killing. This is not how one solves a land dispute or any other. Sadly, a life has been lost,” said Mwakio.

The police boss explained that the father and son in custody were arraigned in court on Monday for a miscellaneous application.

“The DCI were granted fourteen days to continue holding the suspects during which a mental assessment test is to be done. Afterwards, they will be arraigned again for plea,” said Mwakio.

One more to kill

Kasarari’s family, however, says the three other sons who participated in killing their patriarch are still roaming freely in the village, threatening them even further.

“These are people seen killing my father and now roaming around and saying they still have unfinished business with us. They say they have one more person to deal with,” said Ezekiel Musangi, one of the Kasarari’s sons.

Kasarari’s brother Luka Kwalanda says he is the target of the assailants and that his life is now in danger.

“These are people who have shown no remorse and have vowed to inflict even more harm on the family. I and anyone else in the family are not safe. We demand justice,” said Kwalanda.

He says his brother had legally acquired the 3.5-hectare piece of land, faulting local administration for what he termed as not doing enough to avert the tragedy.

“Although the community policing elders and chiefs knew about the dispute, they did nothing. It was until my brother was killed when they rushed to the scene acting like they didn’t know it would get this ugly,” said Kwalanda.