A man from Trans Nzoia County died by suicide on Monday after his wife denied him her national identity card that he wanted to use to obtain a loan to purchase a motorcycle.
In the early hours of Monday, the 39-year-old attempted to kill his wife and two children before hanging himself at their rental house in Canaan Estate in Kachibora, Trans Nzoia County.
Police are investigating the incident, even though it has been revealed that the man may have had a criminal record, as images seized from his home revealed that he was once imprisoned.
According to village elder James Kariuki, the man returned home around 11 p.m. on Sunday to find his wife Winnie Mulongo Wanyonyi and their two children asleep.
He allegedly took a kitchen knife and attempted to kill her and the children but was stopped by neighbours who heard their screams and rushed to their rescue after disarming him.
“At around 12am, I was approached by the landlord, who was accompanied by a neighbour, and he informed me about the incident and wanted me to intervene and sort out the matter. When I arrived at the scene, the wife and kids had been taken to a neighbour’s house for safety,” he told local media.
Mr. Kariuki said he spoke with the man, who said he had requested his wife’s ID to be able to purchase a motorcycle on loan because he had lost his ID, and that she had refused.
“I told him he could not force her to give him her ID, which is her property, even if they were husband and wife. I advised him that what he needed to do was to reach an agreement with his wife, but not obtain the ID by force. If she refused, maybe she didn’t support the idea of purchasing the motorcycle,” said Mr. Kariuki.
When the man’s wife returned to the house, he fished a knife from his pocket and tried to stab her.
The village elder and his neighbors had to intervene to stop the enraged man, grabbing him and throwing him out of the house while his wife fled for safety.
The man returned to the house later and locked himself inside. His neighbors assumed he went to arm himself.
“When we saw how violent the man had become, I called the OCS of Kachibora, informing him of the situation and he promised to send some officers,” Mr. Kariuki said.
When the man realised that police were on the way, he started digging a hole on a back wall of the mud house using a metal rod in order to escape, but he was restrained by residents who were keeping watch over him.
That is when he told them: “Mimi najimaliza” (I am taking my life). That was around 4am.
He hanged himself from the roof of the house with a rope.
When police officers arrived, they found three motorcycle number plates and several mobile phone SIM cards.
Mr. Kariuki said the man and his family had moved to the estate a month earlier.
Neighbours said nobody knew him well as he was only seen during the day and would go missing at night.
Confirming the incident, Trans Nzoia County Criminal Investigations Officer Francis Kihara said the man had a criminal history.
“The photos that were collected from the house showed he was at one time in prison. We are investigating to establish who he actually was,” he told the Nation.
The body was moved to the Kitale County Referral Hospital mortuary.
