A man was hacked to death by his neighbour for allegedly stealing his one and a half kilogramme of maize, the High Court in Nakuru heard on Tuesday.
Stephen Mwaniki is alleged to have been killed with a jembe by Peter Munga Njuguna who had earlier on accused him of stealing his maize at Banita area in Subukia over a year ago.
Testifying before High Court Judge Maureen Odero, corporal Benard Kipkoech said that he overheard the area chief intimate to the OCS that the accused had earlier brought the deceased to his office on allegations that he had stolen his maize but he reconciled them.
According to Kipkoech, the chief said that the accused later hacked the deceased to death on the same evening.
"I heard the chief tell the OCS that he reconciled both the deceased and the accused but he later learnt that the accused had gone ahead to murder the deceased," he said.
He added that the jembe that was allegedly used to commit the offence was brought to the police station by the chief.
A postmortem report presented before the court indicated that the deceased had succumbed to head injuries inflicted by a blunt object.
The hearing continues on December 8.