This archive report was first published on 8 August 2020.
On Wednesday morning, a gang abducted a secondary school teacher from his home in Shinoyi location, Navakholo sub-county, and murdered him several kilometres away.
According to the police, the victim, Ernest 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.
The Kakamega Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) boss, Robert Murithi, said they have identified the owner of the vehicle used in the abduction.
Mr. Murithi stated that the victim was shot twice, and they recovered two bullet heads and two spent cartridges of 7.62mm special.
Although the motive behind the killing is unknown, family members claim it is related to a land dispute. The police are taking statements from various people, including the victim's father and brothers, who are said to have had disagreements with the teacher before his death.
According to the victim's wife, Maurine Atema, a teacher at Lirhanda Girls' Secondary School in Ikolomani, the assailants - who were armed with rifles - held discussions with her husband inside their house before they dragged him out. They then hurled him into the boot of a waiting white saloon car parked outside their compound.
Residents of Emasinga village later raided the home of one of the victim's step-brothers, Mr. Calistus Weremba, and torched his three houses. They also moved to his father's house and took away three cows, which were later discovered to have been burnt to death in a house under construction.
Mr. Ndege, the victim's father, had sold one parcel of land to a private developer and another to Navakholo NG-CDF for the establishment of a primary school. However, the victim had moved to the lands office and put an injunction against the deals.
Mr. Ndege stated that his eldest son had a dispute with his step-brothers after he allegedly engaged in an incestuous relationship with the daughter of one of them. He was later interdicted by the Teachers' Service Commission over the case.
By Nation.co.ke
