Police pursue suspects linked to murder of KCPE candidate in Mombasa

Police in Jomvu, Mombasa County are actively pursuing six suspects believed to have butchered a 14-year-old boy to death.

According to a police report, the victim, Kennedy Maluni who was expected to seat his Kenya Certificate of Primary Education (KCPE) reportedly went missing on August 23, 2023, moments after her mother, Margaret Mbithe, sent him to the shop at around 8.30 pm.

Mbithe patiently waited for her lastborn to return home from the shop but time kept passing by.

When he did not return to the house by 10.00 pm, the mother of four raised the alarm to the neighbours who launched a search that went on till 2:00 am.

The search did not bear any fruit.

“I gathered my neighbours and we started looking for him everywhere,” Mbithe told a local publication.

At this point, the neighbours and the family of the victim converged for prayers to seek divine intervention before they retired to their homes.

The next day, Mbithe desperately proceeded to the village elder to seek assistance on the matter. The elder asked her to report the matter to the police station.

She heeded the advice and reported the matter under OB number 07/24/08/2023.

“The next morning, I went to the village elder to report the matter and he advised me to first report it at the police station,” she added.

The police asked her to confirm a body that had been recovered from a ditch in Mwamlai which is 500 metres from his school.

The trip to the scene confirmed her worst fears when she realised the body recovered was her missing son.

The boy who had been slashed with a machete had sustained deep cuts on his head, hands and abdomen.

“When I went there, I found a lot of people, including the police, milling around. When I peeped to have a look, my heart skipped and my legs gave way. It was my son,” Mbithe stated.

Suspects

Preliminary reports revealed that the victim’s assailants were a group of young boys almost the age of the deceased.

According to Juma Lubambo, a director at Vision of Hope Education Centre in Mwamlai, the boys beat up the victim before attacking him with a machete.

“We had reports that this was done by a group of young boys who we had not known until about three days ago when we got wind that three of the attackers had been arrested and they named three of their colleagues, who are still at large,” Lubambo said.

“Then one of the first three went back to where the body had been ditched to see whether it was still there or the boy had gone. He found the body had started going cold and was lifeless. He panicked and ran away, not returning home,” he added.

The Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) has taken up the case.