This archive report was first published on 9 June 2020.
Published on June 9, 2020, a tragic incident shook the residents of Nyakwerema in North Mugirango, Nyamira County, when a man brutally murdered his four-year-old daughter over a failed sleeping plan.
The man, who had a history of mental illness, had demanded that his daughter sleep with him in a separate bed, but his wife, Lillian Kwamboka, refused.
According to Nyamira County Commissioner Amos Mariba, the couple had a quarrel earlier, and when they were going to sleep, the man insisted that his daughter sleep with him in a separate bed.
However, the wife's refusal led to a violent outburst, and the man forcefully took the child to another room where he cut her with a machete, inflicting deep fatal cuts into the head.
The mother, who also suffered head injuries during the scuffle, said the other three children had refused to accompany her back from her maternal home after she agreed to return to their father in Boisanga Village, two weeks ago.
"The other children have been living in fear of their father because he would turn so abusive. They refused to come home with me to him," said Kwamboka.
The man was arrested and is still in police custody awaiting arraignment. "We had to take him for psychiatric test owing to the nature of offence," Mariba said.
