Kirinyaga residents are reeling in shock after a man hacked to death his wife and four children in a domestic dispute in Kathata village.
The man, Murage Njuki, reportedly wiped out his entire family Monday night, sending shockwaves across the sprawling village.
After the gruesome murders, the assailant surrendered himself at the Kianyaga Police Station, where he was locked up for questioning.
Kirinyaga East police boss Anthony Wanjuu said Njuki would face murder charges after investigations are completed.
"We have commenced investigations and soon the man, who is well known in the village, will be arraigned in court to face capital charges," he said.
Neighbours said the assailant allegedly became violent when his wife, Millicent Muthoni, 38, attempted to stop him from defiling their underage daughter.
They said he took an axe and struck her dead before turning to the innocent children, aged between one and thirteen years, and butchering them in cold blood, one after the other.
The children, two boys and two girls, pleaded to their father to spare their lives but their pleas fell on deaf ears as he continued hacking them with the weapon.
Neighbours responding to the distress calls found the victims lying in pools of blood and sounded the alarm, attracting scores of residents, who searched for the assailant but could not find him.
"The residents were furious and wanted to lynch the suspect but luckily he had escaped," one of the residents said.
Immediately after the murders police drove to the scene and took the bodies to the Kerugoya Referral Hospital mortuary.
As the bodies were being taken away, relatives were overwhelmed with emotions and wept uncontrollably.
A relative, Patrick Njiru, said he learnt of the fatal attacks with great shock. "I was at home when I was informed that my sister and his four children had been brutally eliminated. I hurriedly went to the scene only to be met by dead bodies," he said.
Mr Njiru described the attack as inhuman, adding that the assailant should not go unpunished.
Mr Ndambiri Muchira, a resident, said the incident was the most serious of its kind to have happened in the area.
"This is the first incident of this nature to occur in this village and we are baffled," he said.
