A 50-year-old man in Igembe North was lynched by an irate mob after he allegedly killed his daughter aged 10 years by slitting her throat.
The incident took place in Nthangarine village when the girl’s mother went to the shop to buy food leaving the man and daughter in their hut.
It is unclear what made the father to commit the crime although a neighbour said the girl had previously lost Sh100 after being sent to the market.
“The family lives in abject poverty and getting Sh100 note is not an easy task. The girl’s father might have been infuriated by this,” said Mr M’Imungiri, a neighbour.
Coming from the neigbourhood, the girl’s brother found the father in the house but the sister was missing.
He searched for her and later found her dead body in a pool of blood behind their house, something that prompted him to raise alarm.
The neighbours later alerted the chief who called police from Mutuati Station.
According to the Nation, villagers then marched Mr M’Kairi to a nearby shopping centre from where they attacked and lynched him.
Both bodies have been taken to the Meru Teaching and Referral Hospital Mortuary.
Neighbours said the couple have been living in abject poverty and that life frustrations have forced them to resort to drinking chang’aa.
“They have no land for farming and this has made them desperate. They usually roam in the village borrowing food, ” said another neighbour.