Shock and grief has engulfed residents of Kabata area in Murang’a County, after the body of a dairy farmer was found buried in a hole using cow dung.
The body of Anthony Macharia, 55, was found buried a few metres from his house on Wednesday morning after his wife said she could not reach him through his mobile phone.
The late Macharia was allegedly killed by his Ugandan Shamba Boy, who is said to have used one of the holes which were dug to plant bananas to bury the body.
The wife of the deceased, Grace Wanjiru said her late husband together with the Shamba Boy went to attend one of his cows which was delivering at around 10pm on Tuesday night.
She lamented that since then, she did not see her husband again, but the boy came back at around 1am and said the farmer was still handling the cow.
“I slept and in the following morning I assumed my husband went to milk cows and deliver milk to a nearby collection centre only to realize afterwards he was missing. The cows had not been attended to and the Shamba Boy was nowhere to be found,” said the distraught wife.
She said she called their neighbours and relatives who came and started searching for him around the compound and in his farm.
A niece of the deceased, Grace Wangui said they received a call from their uncle’s wife informing them about his missing. “We embarked on a search for him in the farm only to find his body in a shallow grave covered with cow dung,” she lamented.
Wangui said they suspected the murder was committed by the Shamba Boy who then disappeared under the cover of darkness.
The Police officers who visited the scene said preliminary investigations revealed that Wachira was hit with a blunt object at the back of his head.
Confirming the incident, Kandara Deputy County Commissioner Carolyne Nzwili said the Shamba Boy is yet to be found but police are still trying to trace him.
She observed that upon investigations on his phone details, the Shamba Boy sim card line was registered using a Kenyan Identity card and the names used in the listing process were different from the ones known to the locals.
“We are trying to trace the boy, so as to get the truth about the murder. In the meantime, the body of the deceased was moved to Thika Level 5 Hospital Mortuary for postmortem,” added Nzwili.
Meanwhile, the Deputy County Commissioner has dissuaded residents from employing casual labourers from neighbouring countries, noting that only a few months ago, another Ugandan farm worker also assaulted and fatally injured his employer in the same Kandara locality.
“Local farmers should also get full details of the people they employ, especially their areas of origin. This is a second case where a farm worker has allegedly killed his employer,” reiterated Nzwili.
Meanwhile, residents have eulogized the late Macharia as a sociable person who interacted freely with people, while at the same time casting aspersions on the suspected killer farm worker whom they said was not friendly to them.
By Bernard Munyao
