A Kenyan woman hacked off her four-year-old son’s head on Wednesday, apparently furious that the young child had mislaid a 10-shilling (15 United States cents) coin, police and witnesses said.
Witnesses said the 35-year-old mother beheaded her child with a machete in the Gatundu region, about 30km north-west of the capital, Nairobi.
”We heard screams and rushed there only to find the boy dead. He had been beheaded,” resident Joseph Ngare told reporters.
”We then collected the boy’s torso and head and took the woman to the Gatundu police station.”
Local police Commander Hassan Abdi confirmed the crime and said the mother would be prosecuted.
”She is under arrest and we have commenced investigations. She will appear in court for murder once the probe is finalised,” Abdi said. ”Justice will be delivered.”
The crime occurred in central Kenya, the heartland of the politically linked Mungiki sect that has been carrying out a grisly spate of murders and beheadings in recent months.
Once a pseudo-religious group of dreadlocked youths who embraced rituals such as female circumcision, the Mungiki has fragmented into a criminal gang notorious for activities such as extortion, murder and harassment of women.
About 60% of Kenya’s estimated 33-million population live on less than a dollar a day. — AFP
