Separation, fight over child custody and a stabbing

A domestic dispute over the custody of a three-year-old boy turned tragic after a middle-aged man attacked his wife with a kitchen knife and stabbed her daughter, who later succumbed to her injuries.

Mr Elias Jacob Katanga is said to have arrived at their rented house in Mwihoko area, Ruiru sub-county, at 4am demanding to see his son.

He had separated from his family a few months ago following a family dispute and only returned on Sunday morning, demanding to take custody of his son from his estranged wife.

During the early morning scuffle, his estranged wife Teresia Wairimu, who resisted the move, was stabbed in the head and rushed to Ruiru Sub-County Hospital in Kiambu.

Her 16-year-old daughter, who tried to separate the two and screamed for help from neighbours, was also stabbed in the back of the head and rushed to the same hospital, where she was pronounced dead on arrival.

Her body is in the mortuary at Thika Level 5 Hospital awaiting an autopsy.

“The wife tried to resist and the husband (suspect) took a kitchen knife and stabbed her on her head and then turned on their daughter aged 16, who was screaming for help, and stabbed her on the back. He then escaped to an unknown destination leaving the knife and an unharmed son behind,” a police report said.

On Sunday afternoon, some of the neighbours who live in the rented shacks in Mwihoko stayed away from the place and some passers-by spoke in low tones about the incident.

Officers at Mwihoko police station said they had launched a manhunt for the man who fled after the incident. They found a bloodstained knife, believed to be the murder weapon, at the scene.