A 32-year-old man was stabbed and killed as he escorted his son to school in an attack in Mathare slums, Nairobi.
Locals
said they heard commotion and screams on Monday morning and when they rushed to
the scene to establish the source, they stumbled on the body of Michael Oworo
lying in a pool of blood.
His son stood a few meters away crying unsure what to do next after the macabre murder of the father.
Police and locals said the victim was taking his son to a baby care centre in the area when an assailant attacked him.
He wanted to drop the son at the centre and then proceed to a construction site where he worked as a mason for a living.
The motive of the attack is yet to be established but locals said the murder happened in a robbery mission.
The victim must have tried to fight off the attack leading to the fatal stabbing.
The body had a stab wound in the chest believed to have been inflicted by a sharp object, police and witnesses said.
At the scene of the incident, an open lunch box – containing food (ugali and omena) lay scattered on the dusty road, police said adding this was the food for the child for the day.
Police said the assailant is known and efforts to arrest him are ongoing.
Neighbours who rushed to the scene said they found the child aged about three crying after witnessing the attack.
The responders called an ambulance, which arrived there minutes later but attendants declared him dead at the scene.
According to the neighbours, the deceased was a single father.
He had reportedly been living alone with the son since he was three months old.
The residents protested the incident as they raised concerns over rising cases of insecurity in the Mathare 4A, area.
They said the deceased was a casual worker at construction sites and he usually took his son to a daycare center to enable him to go earn a living.
“He wanted to feed his son and that is why he went to the construction sites to get a living. This must be addressed,” said Felix Popo, a resident who has been working to help transform youth in the area.
Angry residents on Monday morning temporarily blocked the police from collecting the body in protest against insecurity.
The officers managed to pick the body to the Nairobi Funeral Home, after a protracted ‘fight’ and negotiation with the angry residents.
Nairobi head of DCI Benson Kasyoki said a team of detectives is pursuing the matter.
