This archive report was first published on 7 August 2020.
On Wednesday morning, a gang abducted a secondary school teacher, Ernest Opondo, from his home in Shinoyi location, Navakholo sub-county, and murdered him several kilometres away.
According to Kakamega Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) boss Robert Murithi, Mr Opondo, 54, had jumped from the moving vehicle along the Ekero-Butere road to escape the wrath of the abductors and locked himself in a nearby house. However, the assailants pursued him and killed him in the home of Hamis Malala at around 11.30am.
Mr Murithi said the victim was shot twice. “We recovered two bullet heads and two spent cartridges of 7.62mm special,” he said.
The motive behind the killing is unknown, but family members claim it is related to a land dispute. Mr Murithi said they are taking statements from various people, including Mr Opondo's father and brothers, who are said to have had disagreements with the teacher before his death.
Mr Opondo's wife, Maurine Atema, a teacher at Lirhanda Girls' Secondary School in Ikolomani, said the assailants — who were armed with rifles — held discussions with her husband inside their house before they dragged him out.
Residents of Emasinga village later raided the home of one of Mr Opondo's step-brothers, Mr Calistus Weremba, and torched his three houses. They also moved to his father Peter Ndege's house and took away three cows, which were later discovered to have been burnt to death in a house under construction.
Mr Ndege had sold one parcel of land to a private developer and another to Navakholo NG-CDF for establishment of a primary school. However, Mr Opondo had moved to the lands office and put an injunction against the deals.
