A jilted man who poisoned and bludgeoned his ex-girlfriend to death and fatally strangled her one-year-old child was arraigned on Tuesday in Eldoret.
According to police statements, Douglas Kipchumba had on November 19 traveled more than 30 kilometres from his home in Elgeyo Marakwet county, saying he wanted to reconcile with his ex-girlfriend.
The mission ended in the deaths of mother and child on November 19.
Police said the suspect brought yoghurt laced with poison that he gave to Hilda Kosgey to drink as they talked. She tasted it and said it was bad.
She started screaming and running away but the suspect allegedly picked a blunt object and hit her head, police said. He then grabbed the child, Presly Kipruto, and strangled him, the police said.
The bodies were hidden near a river, the police report said.
The killing occurred at Soroiyot village in Kesses subcounty. The suspect tried to commit suicide but residents beat him up. Police saved him and took him to hospital where he was admitted until recently.
He will undergo a mental assessment before pleading to murder charges, Eldoret High Court deputy registrar Dianah Milimo directed.
Milimo ordered the suspect to be escorted to Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital in Eldoret to determine whether he is fit to stand trial for murder.
“Once the assessment is out, he will be brought back before Justice Eric Ogola for plea taking on December 15," Milimo said.
The court appointed lawyer Morgan Omusundi to represent the suspect because he was not represented when he was brought before the deputy registrar.
“This girl was in Form 3 and the boy who killed her had been seen in the area for more than a week, asking her to be his girlfriend again,” one of the residents said.
In a statement to the police, the girl’s mother is said to have confronted the boy and asked him to leave her daughter alone after she spotted him hanging around her homestead.
“I saw him severally around my home and confronted him to know what he was after. I asked him to go away and leave my daughter alone but I didn’t know he was still hiding, waiting to attack her," the mother said.
It’s alleged that the man was jealous after his former girlfriend refused his advances.
The girl used to school with the boyfriend at Biwott Secondary School in Keiyo South, Elgeyo Marakwet county. Then she moved to Saruyot Secondary School in Uasin Gishu where she met the father of the baby. He was a student.
The suspect in the killing was not the father of the boy.
After the killings, Kipchumba is said to have left marks leading to where he dumped the bodies.
(Edited by V. Graham)