Father who stabbed son to death takes own life in police cell

A man who has been in police custody after he allegedly stabbed his stepson to death committed suicide on Tuesday in a police cell. 

Mr Euticus Githinji is said to have stabbed his stepson, Mr Dennis Mwema, twice on the chest on May 8 when the young man tried to intervene in a violent domestic row involving his parents.

Following the stabbing, Mr Mwema bled to death in their house in Huruma Estate, Nairobi with neighbours who responded to his mother's call for help unable to access the house since it was locked from the inside.

Police on Tuesday said they were informed by the other inmates that Mr Githnji had taken too long in the toilet and he was not responding to their calls.

“An officer quickly accessed the locked door and found him hanging from the toilet roof with his jacket draw cords roped around his neck,” said a police officer who was on duty.

Police said they tried to give him first after cutting the jacket draw cords but he was pronounced dead by doctors from the Médecins Sans Frontières.

Mr Mwema’s mother, Ms Eunice Wanza, said her husband on the day he allegedly stabbed his stepson to death, had arrived home drunk and started a verbal fight with her that soon turned into a fistfight.

Ms Wanza said she sustained minor injuries during the incident. During the fistfight, the son, who was asleep in his bedroom was woken up by the noises and tried to stop his stepfather from beating his mother.

It was then, Ms Wanza, said her husband descended on their son with kicks and blows dragging him into the kitchen where he stabbed the teenage with a knife.

Ms Wanza said her cries for help from the neighbours were in vain after they found the door locked from the inside.

Mr Githinji fled after the incident but was later arrested.