Revealed: Boy found dead in Bungoma car was ‘hit before being locked in’
A new twist has emerged in the death of a nine year old boy from Bungoma County said to have died from suffocation after his mother and her lover reportedly left him in a locked car with the engine turned off as they went for a romantic escapade in a hotel’s lodging at a local trading centre.
It has now emerged that Enos Barasa, died from his injuries after he was hit with a blunt object.
The Nation has learnt that a postmortem conducted on the child’s body on Monday indicated that he died from his injuries.
A medic who witnessed the postmortem on the minor’s body at the Bungoma County Referral Hospital mortuary, and who spoke to the Nation in confidence, said all indications were that the boy was murdered.
“He had severe head, stomach and chest injuries, probably from a blunt object. Blood had accumulated in his chest, head and the stomach, an indication that he was murdered,” he said.
The family’s spokesperson Benson Barasa, who also was present during the postmortem, said his nephew may have been hit with a blunt object and left for dead.
“It was not a case of suffocation as they want us to believe, our son was murdered,” said Barasa.
The boy was found dead when his mother and her lover went about their sexual escapades in a local lodging in Bumula sub county on last Sunday.
Mr Barasa said the minor was a nursery school pupil at Matumbufu Primary School in Kanduyi.
ARRESTED
“The boy should have been in class four because he was nine year old but due to poverty he used to miss classes often,” he said.
The boy’s mother Ms Christine Simiyu, who has five other children, is a widow and the deceased was her last born. The family said her husband died in 2015. She has since been arrested together with her lover identified as Jude Ng’ang’a and are being held by the police in Bungoma.
The police officers investigating the case have already notified the court of the impending case in a Bungoma High court on Tuesday and the police officers have been given five more days to conclude their investigations.
Bumula OCPD Mr Julius Muthini said that his officers had filed a miscellaneous application and are on the ground to conclude the investigation on time.
Mr Barasa told the Nation at the family home that the boy’s mother had left her matrimonial home with her last born on Thursday, to their maternal home in Mabusi village Bumula, for the burial of a family member on Saturday. She had been expected back Sunday.
The woman’s mother, Petronilla Naliaka expressed shock at the turn of events.
“What we later heard was shocking, that my grandson was found dead inside a car at a lodging. This is unbelievable,” she said.
Mr Ng’ang’a’s family from his Mujini estate home in Bungoma town refused to comment on the matter.
The manager at Mareba Complex Bar in Mateka market, Mr Boniface Wafula, said that on the fateful Sunday, the two arrived in the man’s blue saloon car and booked a room at about 9am.
BURIAL EXPENSES
“They stopped at the parking, spoke briefly, as the woman came out of the vehicle, picked up a small can of soda, and followed her lover to the room,” he said.
Mr Wafula claimed that they were unaware that the child was locked up in the vehicle but that the women kept moving out of the room, picking up cans of soda from the bar and taking them to the vehicle. But when she was taking to the third soda to the car, Mr Wafula says he saw her open the door and wail.
“She then pulled the shirtless body of a baby boy dressed in a short from the car. I rushed with some water to help in resuscitating the boy but he seems to have died long time ago,” he said.
He explained that after he saw the public starting to mill around the car baying for the woman’s blood, he rushed to Mateka AP Post to report the matter but the officers treated the report casually.
“I decided to pick a motorbike and report at Bumula Police Station where the officers rushed to the scene and saved the couple from being lynched,” he said.
Meanwhile, the boy’s family says they need Sh75,000 for burial expenses to be conducted on Friday at their Luanda village home in West Sang’alo Ward, Kanduyi constituency.
The family is appealing to well-wishers, the county government and people of good will to help them accord the deceased a good send off.
“We have sent an appeal for financial help to relatives and friends but none has responded positively,” one family member said.