Police are hunting for a wife inheritor who is accused of killing two brothers and fled his daughter from their homestead in a domestic quarrel.
Jaoko Anyiko from Uriri is reported to have walked for close to 20km to the home of his lover Yunis Oduor at Orandi village in Awendo. He unsuccessfully tried to make peace.
Police said Anyiko tried to take his daughter but failed. Antony Otieno Obunde, 45, and Charles Obondo Obunde, 32, chased him into a sugarcane plantation. However, they were slashed with a panga and died of their injuries.
Elder Victor Ojowi said the woman had chosen to be inherited by the man instead of her brothers-in-law, sparking a dispute.
“They have been having an affair for long with the suspect. Trouble started when the woman told him the relationship should end as she needed to be inherited by her in-laws according to their customs,” Ojowi said.
Villagers said the two have been having domestic squabbles and the couple separated on October 10 after fighting.
According to Luo traditions, a widow should be inherited by a man called ‘Jater’ who should sleep in the deceased’s house, have sexual relations with the woman and leave behind his coat in the house.
Ojowi said most men are afraid to make the first move in a widow’s house which is called ‘tero chola’ to cleanse the woman of the spirit of death and misfortune. Men who are not relatives often do the first cleansing before being chased away.
“When Anyiko asked for his daughter he was told according to their culture the child should remain in the family and belongs to the deceased. That angered him,” villager Alice Anyango said.
Migori police boss Joseph Nthenge said villagers chased the suspect who disappeared into a nearby sugarcane plantation.
Nthenge said the bodies were taken to Rapcom Hospital mortuary. He said the police have intensified a search for the suspect to avoid a retaliatory attack.
MANUEL ODENY/The Star
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