Police in Cherangany sub-county, Trans-Nzoia County are pursuing a 30-year-old woman who stabbed her husband to death over the sale of a eucalyptus tree before disappearing from her home.
The suspect, Jackline Nanjala is said to have attacked Collins Alukhaba aged 33 using a kitchen knife after they differed over the proceeds from the sale of the eucalyptus tree. The woman was unhappy when her husband sold the tree without her knowledge claiming she was the one who planted the tree.
The couple reportedly engaged in a scuffle before Nanjala picked the knife and stabbed her husband on the chest and took off to an unknown place.
According to a brother to the deceased John Alukhaba, the couple engaged in a bitter exchange of words over the proceeds from the sale of the tree before the deceased tried to beat up his wife.
Police said neighbors who heard screams from Alukhaba rushed him to Cherangany sub-county hospital where he was pronounced dead on arrival. Area deputy OCPD Victor Nzaka said they are pursuing the suspect over the incident.
The suspect is at large but we have intensified a manhunt for her and we are sure we will catch up with her in order to face the law,’’ said Nzaka. By Sunday, the tree which caused that death remained uncollected by the neighbor who had bought it.
John said it was the deceased who had felled it down after the buyer promised to deliver sh 2000 they agreed on.
“My brother was yet to receive the money from the person whom he had sold the tree to and he had even agreed that the money is handed over to his wife. We don’t know why she decided to end his life,” said John.
A source said the neighbor who had bought the tree was reluctant to carry it away fearing it will trigger more trouble.
Local elders visited the home and conducted a ritual to facilitate the arrest of Nanjala whom they accusing of bringing bad omen in the family by killing her husband.
The elders also restrained youths from using the tree to light fire in the home during the mourning period saying it they had cursed it.
Cases of rampant hacking and murdering are recently on the rise in Kenya with over 100 cases of the same so far reported in 2019 alone. The recent research findings placed Eldoret and Nakuru as the leading towns in Crime cases.