From the lush green maize plantations in Keringet to the expansive potato and carrot farms in Kiptororo, Kuresoi in Nakuru County is a revered food basket in the South Rift region.
The agriculturally-rich areas of Kuresoi South and North sub-counties have for years been regarded as lands of plenty, producing much of Nakuru’s agricultural produce.
However, something wicked is brewing in the area that has left residents and security agencies worried. Recent attacks, defilements and sometimes murders of children portray a land of plenty plagued by death and bizarre incidents.
In the past two months, at least five children in the area have been attacked and severely injured — not by strangers, but by the very people entrusted to protect them: parents and guardians. About four cases of defilement have also been reported in Kuresoi North and South, raising alarm over the safety of children in the area, especially during this festive season.
The cases, reported between September and November, reveal a shocking trend of violence taking place behind closed doors.
From severe beatings and burn injuries to life-threatening assaults and defilements, the recent incidents have raised urgent questions about mental health, poverty, stress, and the effectiveness of child-protection systems.
In the latest incident on November 23, a 27-year-old mother of three was arrested by the police after she injured her six-year-old child for failing to peel potatoes for lunch.
The incident happened in Gacharage village in Kuresoi North. According to Kuresoi North police commander Julius Kadenge, the woman attacked the minor with a sharp object, leaving him with deep cut wounds on the forehead.
He is recuperating after treatment. Neighbours recounted that the woman locked the house and attacked the child with a panga, slashing him four times on the head and face.
“When we confronted her, she claimed she had only hit the child with a cooking stick. But when we rescued the minor, he was heavily bleeding,” said a neighbour, Jeremiah Tonui.
On November 23, a 27-year-old mother of three was arrested by the police after she injured her six-year-old child for failing to peel potatoes for lunch.
Photo credit: Pool
In another incident early this month, police arrested a 60-year-old grandmother who was accused of subjecting her two grandsons to horrific torture after she accused them of stealing Sh1,500 meant for her chama.
The woman accused the boys, aged eight and 11, of stealing the money before she locked them in the house and burnt them using a hot iron rod. The grandmother allegedly conspired with the boys’ stepfather to “teach the minors a lesson.”
The cruel and painful punishment left the minors with burns and injuries on the hands and legs. The victims were allegedly pinned down by the stepfather as their grandmother pressed a hot iron rod on their hands and legs. According to Mau Summit sub-location Chief, Mr Kevin Brown Bett, the family first hid the incident from the authorities to avoid arrests.
Brutally assaulted by her parents
However, another family reported the matter a week later.
“I got wind of the information days later and reported the matter at Masaideni Police Station in Kuresoi North Sub-county. The two minors were taken to hospital for treatment before the grandmother was arrested,” said Mr Bett.
The stepfather, who is alleged to have aided in the assault, burned the police documents and medicine before fleeing. The man is still at large.
“Their stepfather has not been arrested; he is still at large. The grandmother was released on police bond after her arrest. The two minors are recovering and in safe custody,” added the administrator.
In yet another incident in September, a nine-year-old girl in Chepkinoyo, Nyota Ward, was brutally assaulted by her parents after she was accused of coming home late from church.
The Grade Five pupil was attacked by her mother and her stepfather. The duo stripped the minor naked, tied both her hands and went ahead to assault her. The minor was locked inside the house before she was rescued by neighbours and taken to hospital.
The mother was arrested and handed over to the police, while the man escaped. The minor also had bite wounds on her back and other injuries on her body.
Two months ago, a Grade Eight pupil was also defiled by her father at their home in Cheptagum village in Kuresoi North. The minor went through the ordeal at the hands of a man she had known to be her father for the past 13 years.
He took advantage of the absence of the minor’s mother, who was harvesting peas in the farm, to commit the heinous act. To cover up his actions, he accused the minor of having a boyfriend at a tender age — claims which were found to be untrue as he was trying to shift the blame to someone else.
Records from the DCI show over 60 defilement cases have been recorded in Nakuru in the past eight months.
Photo credit: Shutterstock
“More children have been defiled or assaulted, but in most cases the incidents go unreported. Defilement cases are also sometimes solved by kangaroo courts,” revealed a police officer attached to a police station in Kuresoi South.
Records from the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) show over 60 defilement cases have been recorded in Nakuru in the past eight months, most involving relatives or close family friends. The incidents in Kuresoi North and South now point to a broader crisis rooted in social, economic and psychological pressures affecting families in the region.
According to Ms Irene Awino, a counselling psychologist, the rise in violence against children can be linked to an unconscious need for power and control, unresolved childhood trauma and distorted ways of processing thoughts and regulating emotions.
“Human behaviour is often influenced by unconscious drives and early childhood experiences. Some perpetrators may have grown up in abusive environments or experienced neglect, leading them to repeat familiar patterns — a concept known as modelling behaviour or object relations theory, where one interacts with others as they did with significant figures from childhood,” explained Ms Awino.
“Additionally, underlying mental health conditions such as mood disorders, poor impulse control, and maladaptive defence mechanisms like displacement — taking out frustration on vulnerable children — can also play a role,” she added.
She told Saturday Nation that chronic neglect during childhood can affect brain areas responsible for empathy and emotional regulation, such as the prefrontal cortex and the limbic system, leading to violent attacks or exploitative behaviour against children.
To address this crisis, Ms Awino noted that it is important to provide psychotherapy to help individuals process trauma, cognitive-behavioural therapy (CBT) to restructure negative thinking patterns, and parenting programmes that encourage emotionally available and responsive parenting, empathy and positive behaviour reinforcement.
Nakuru County Police Commander Emmanuel Epuru described the trend as “deeply worrying” and called for a multi-agency effort to safeguard children.
“We are seeing an increase in such cases. We have escalated the matter with the community, church and political leaders to forge a way of dealing with the vice. We urge communities to report these incidents immediately and not treat them as ‘family matters’. Assaulting a child is a criminal offence,” said Mr Epuru.
A child welfare officer who spoke on condition of anonymity also said that the recent cases may only represent a fraction of the problem, as many incidents go unreported.
According to the officer, rural children, especially those living in low-income households, face heightened risks because they lack safe spaces or accessible support systems, adding that discipline has been confused with punishment and punishment has escalated into violence.
“Most children suffering abuse at home never speak out. They fear their parents or they have been conditioned to believe that the violence is normal,” said the Children’s Department officer based in Kuresoi North.
