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Elisha Otieno
1 September 2010
Nairobi — Two men have killed their wives and children in as many weeks in Nyanza.
On Wednesday, Migori woke up to the sad news that a man had killed his wife and her two children. But he was seized by villagers and killed near the Kenya-Tanzania border. He was fleeing the country.
Last week, a man is said to have killed his wife and her three children in the Nyalenda slums of Kisumu. He fled but was arrested on Wednesday.
Both men had inherited their wives and had a history of domestic rows.
On Tuesday, Silvanus Owuor Lwamba used a hoe to batter his wife, Esther Akinyi, her nine-year-old daughter, Lilian Akinyi and a one-year-old son, Barack Odhiambo, to death.
Unhappy with decision
Before the killing, Esther's father James Ogolla, had called a meeting in Magoto village to discuss the constant friction between the couple and it was decided that the two should part ways. Lwamba appeared unhappy with that even though he did not openly object.
The meeting ended with prayers from Akinyi's father and everyone went to sleep.
But Magoto villagers woke up to the horrifying news that Lwamba had killed Akinyi. The bodies were found in their two-room house with their heads smashed with a hoe.
Akinyi's three other children -- Ochieng, Eunice and Obama -- had slept in their nearby grandfather's house.
"My sister's husband died five years ago then Lwamba came into her life three years ago. I wish we had not allowed him to sleep in the house after the meeting," said Akinyi's brother, Mr Jack Otieno, as tears rolled down his cheeks.
He said that in March, Lwamba, who was in his 50s, had left 36-year-old Akinyi and vowed never to return but he came back two months later.
"My sister lived a terrible life with this inheritor... He brought nothing home and only came to eat what she had toiled for" Mr Otieno added.
The deaths were blamed on the "wife inheritance" tradition in Luo Nyanza.
"Why should somebody kill innocent children? It is time we stopped this wife inheritance because it does not add any value to the family," said a women's rights activist, Mrs Caren Were.
In the Nyalenda tragedy last weekend, the man is alleged to have killed his wife, Ms Pamela Achieng Orawo, and her three children before escaping. He had inherited her six years ago, and they too had frequent quarrels.
