Mombasa man kills his children after luring them with mangoes

What you need to know:

  • Mr James Maina called the girls into the house after finding them playing outside the house.
  • He then grabbed a knife from their cluttered, one-room house and attacked them.

A man on Thursday stabbed his two daughters to death in Mishomoroni, Mombasa county, after asking them to get into the house to eat mangoes.

John Maina Wang’ombe called the girls after finding them playing outside the house.

BRUTAL ATTACK

Like any trusting child would, the girls, aged six and four, dashed indoors, looking forward to sharing the juicy fruits with their father.

But their 30-year-old father instead grabbed a knife from their cluttered, one-room house and attacked them.

He stabbed one in the chest and the other in the neck.

Mr Maina, whom police and neighbours said was drunk, then sat on a jerrican as his daughters' bodies lay before him.

The girls’ deaths were discovered when Ms Lina Righa, a neighbour, called them to have lunch at her house but they did not come out.

Surprised, she sent her child to find out what might have happened.

“The children usually eat lunch at my house when their mother is not around but when I called them, neither responded. I sent my child to look for them. She told me their door was locked," Ms Righa said.

CONFESSION

As Ms Righa prepared to go and find out where the children were, their mother, a small-time businesswoman, arrived.

“I went with her and knocked on the door. The children’s father did not respond, so we broke down the door. We found him sitting on a jerrican. He said he had killed the children,” she said, breaking into sobs.

Ms Righa, who is the couple's landlady, said Mr Maina had spent the whole day indoors drinking.

“The couple has been living here for four months and the woman has been having problems because of her husband’s drinking. She is the one who has been struggling to feed the family,” Mrs Righa said.

Mr Maina’s father, Mr Charles Kimani, acknowledged that his second-born has had a drinking problem for years, adding that it has been causing problems in his eight-year marriage.

Mombasa Police Commander Johnston Ipara told the Nation on phone that Mr Maina was arrested and taken to Nyali Police Station.

He added that they launched investigations.