Former Matungu Member of Parliament (MP) David Were was struggling to return to sleep when his phone rang shortly after 3.00am on Sunday morning.
For the former legislator, late night calls have become harbingers of dread. Since 2023, restful sleep has rarely visited the Were household, which has endured a relentless chain of violent tragedies. As he reached for the ringing phone, he sensed that something was terribly wrong.
The call was from his daughter-in-law, although not the one who had telephoned him on January 9 this year with devastating news about his son. Yet the fear was immediate and consuming.
“It was strange because she had never called at that time. I didn’t hesitate to receive it. On the other end, I heard a faint voice, then she broke the news that my son was dead,” Mr Were recalled.
Former Matungu MP David Were says his family is yet to get justice for the earlier killing of another son, the late Philemon Were, in January this year, as he mourns Hannington Were in Kisumu on May 24, 2026.
Photo credit: Alex Odhiambo | Nation Media Group
For a few moments, silence swallowed the house.
“I asked her what happened and she told me that her husband and a friend had left the house to go and buy food and he didn’t come back,” he said.
Mr Were’s wife, Jane, overheard the conversation and instantly broke down in tears.
“That was the end of sleep,” Mr Were said.
The deceased, Hannington Were, 39, was attacked near Wayside Junction along Nyerere Road in Kisumu in the early hours of Sunday morning.
According to his wife, Phanit Magalu, Hannington had left his Mountain View residence at around 11.00pm in the company of a friend, Peter Ajwang’, to buy foodstuffs.
She said her husband had stepped out briefly, unaware it would be the last time she would see him alive.
“I was unwell on Saturday night, so my husband, in the company of his friend, left to buy some food. Later, the friend called me and told me that my husband was no more,” she said.
“They beat him with a blunt object. The friend ran away screaming for help. When he came back, he found Hannington lying in a pool of blood,” Ms Magalu narrated at the Kwe Funeral Home, a private wing of the Jaramogi Oginga Odinga Teaching and Referral Hospital where Hannington had been pronounced dead on arrival.
His cousin, Felix Mutinda, said he received the heartbreaking news at dawn. “I received a call at around 6.00am informing me that Hannington was dead.”
The killing has plunged the family into renewed grief, barely four months after another tragedy struck.
On January 9, 2026, another son, Philemon Were, was attacked and killed in Nairobi. The family buried him on January 20 2026.
According to the senior Were, Philemon was allegedly killed by a tenant in Nairobi, but the family says justice has yet to be served.
“Within four months, I have to prepare for two funerals. The man who killed Philemon is known, and to date, as a family, we are yet to get justice,” the former MP lamented.
Philemon was 40 years old and left behind a wife and a son. Hannington leaves behind a wife and two children.
The back-to-back losses have left the family emotionally drained and searching for answers in the shadows of grief.
Mr Were believes the latest killing cannot be viewed in isolation, especially considering a violent attack he also survived in three years ago.
Former Matungu MP David Were at Kwe Funeral Home in Kisumu on May 24, 2026 following the tragic killing of his son, Hannington Were, along Nyerere Road near Robert Ouko Estate.
Photo credit: Alex Odhiambo | Nation Media Group
On May 19, 2023, the former legislator was attacked by unknown assailants in Mamboleo near Lake Basin Mall in Kisumu.
“The assailants were on a motorbike. They broke my hand and knocked out my teeth,” he recalled.
“I was left for dead. The security officers who heard the noise are the ones who responded, otherwise I would have died,” he added.
Nearly three years later, he says no arrests have been made. For his wife, Jane, the repeated tragedies have become almost unbearable.
“We just buried my son the other day and now I’m burying yet another son. Who will bury me?” she asked.
“It is ironic that the elderly are the ones burying the young. We are old people now and I don’t even know how we are going to take care of the widows and the children they have left behind,” she said.
She questioned the brutality of the attackers, saying that even if robbery was the motive, there was no justification for killing. She said insecurity in Kisumu had deteriorated drastically over the years.
“I have lived in Kisumu for 42 years. We used to walk at night without fear. But after my husband was attacked in 2023, I started fearing,” she said.
“The person who killed my first son was known from the beginning. Police even came and saw what happened in that house,” she said.
“I don’t know if these deaths are related to politics. I am not sure,” she said.
Matungu MP Mr David Were at a past press briefing.
Photo credit: File | Nation Media Group
Hannington had worked at the National Social Security Fund offices in Kisumu for more than 15 years. According to his father, the last conversation they shared was on Wednesday, just days before his death.
“He told me he had malaria and had been exempted from work. He was supposed to report back on Monday,” Mr Were said.
“It is a tragedy that has befallen my family. I don’t even know how a parent is expected to survive all this,” he added.
