Detectives based at Turbo in Uasin-Gishu County launched a manhunt for a suspect linked to the murder of his week-old stepson Tuesday.
The man is said to have committed the murder before escaping, police said.
In the shocking incident that has plunged Tarus village in Tapsagoi location into mourning, the suspect identified as Daniel Kipchumba is suspected to have killed the infant after tricking his wife to go outside the house and call for help after feigning sickness.
Kipchumba reunited with his wife of 12 years Grace Atwoli in December last year after they separated in 2019, though she was heavily pregnant with another man.
This appeared to have irked Kipchumba who had since married another woman during the first wife’s absence and moved in with her, in his mother’s compound.
But unknown to Grace, Kipchumba had hatched a plot to take away the life of her little baby.
On Tuesday at around 4 am, the suspect lied to his wife that he was feeling quite unwell and asked her to call his mother and his second wife to assist him to the hospital.
But when she returned accompanied by her stepmother and co-wife, Kipchumba was nowhere to be seen.
According to police, instead, the three stumbled on the lifeless body of the week-old baby lying on a mattress with visible marks on the neck and blood oozing from the nose and mouth.
The baby’s head also appeared to have been hit with a blunt object.
The scene was processed and documented by crime scene personnel and the body was moved to the Kimbilio Nursing Home
Hospital morgue awaiting autopsy.
Detectives are currently on a manhunt for the suspect to answer to charges of murder.