Kisii stepfather from hell: Five-year-old boy killed, buried in banana farm
Meshack Chomo, a pupil at Motonyoni Primary School in Nyaribari Masaba sub-county. His body was discovered in a shallow grave at a farm on May 30, 2023.
Police in Kisii are investigating the murder of a five-year-old boy whose body was found buried in a banana farm on Sunday.
The body of Meshack Chomo, a pupil at Motonyoni Primary School in Masimba ward, Nyaribari Masaba sub-county, was discovered on Tuesday in a shallow grave at a neighbouring farm where his parents worked as farm labourers.
Investigations are focusing on the boy's stepfather, who is in police custody. He is suspected of having something to do with the boy's disappearance and the eventual discovery of his body.
The Kisii police commander, Mr Charles Kases, confirmed that the matter was being investigated.
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The boy, witnesses said, had been playing with his friends in the neighbourhood on Sunday.
"We had lunch together before he went back to play with his friends," said Meshack's distraught mother, Ms Ruth Gesare.
Ms Gesare, who looks after her mother in a nearby village, said her husband told her at 6.30pm on the day of the incident that he could not find the boy.
"I thought it was a joke and told him that the boy was with his friends. I then took a boda boda to go and look after my mother," she said.
Ms Dorca Moraa, whose grandchildren Meshack played with, said: "The boy was taken from my house by his father. After some time, he came back and asked us to give him a hoe to use and we did.”
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She added that the man returned the jembe after a few minutes.
“He then started claiming that his son was nowhere to be found and we played down the claims because he had left with the boy," Ms Moraa added.
However, the suspect continued to make the claims and even wanted people to search Moraa's house for the boy.
The boy's mother returned home the next morning.
Mr Dennis Manyinsa, a relative of the family, said that when the suspect continued to make the claims on Monday, the couple was told to file a report at the Ramasha police station.
Following the report, village elders mobilised residents to search for the boy in the shamba, where they found his body.
Upon discovering the body, the suspect ran away, but was later arrested by residents of a neighbouring village.
