Kisii security agencies have stepped up the hunt for people suspected to have participated in the lynching of four elderly 'witches' in Nyagonyi area in Marani.
By Monday evening, at least four suspects had been taken into custody as 11 more accomplices were being sought across the restive villages in the larger Kitutu Chache North subcounty.
County police commander Francis Kooli said on Tuesday detectives are trailing other suspects and accomplices.
“The government does not condone lawlessness, that people could take the law into their hands and slaughter others with abandon. Why do we have courts?" he asked.
He told journalists in his office on Tuesday he would ensure the families of the slain victim get justice.
Already some suspects are said to have packed and left the villages as police moved in.
One key suspect captured in a widely circulated photo on social media is standing with an axe against an elderly suspect.
He was arrested on Monday and locked up at the Kisii central police station, Kooli said
The man is said to have 'necklaced' the woman with a tyre before torching her on Saturday.
She was among the three women lynched at Sunday .They were torched for the alleged bewitching and abducting a student at night as he revised for examinations in his house.
The student was found outside his house exhausted and speechless after the suspected witches performed dark arts and walked him through thickets at night.
The villagers were summoned and spat on the boy with the belief that the saliva of whoever had participated in the ritual could make him speak.
Two of the first elderly women to spit on him were quickly lynched but not after naming other accomplices.
The four were three women and an 85-year-old man.
Gender and social activists have condemned the killings and urged for the arrest and prosecution of the killers and accomplices.
Denis Wendo, the director of Integrated Development Network, said it was important the killers be held accountable.
He said many elderly people in villages were falsely labelled witches in an attempt toget their land.
On Tuesday, Kisii police were interrogating those arrested.
"We are sure they have more information, especially about those who acted with them," he said. "We will soon get to the bottom of this."
(Edited by V. Graham)