A 30-year-old man is on the run after killing at least two people and injuring several others in a Kenyan market.
Joseph Kileru, a Kenyan businessman, is said to have gone berserk before randomly attacking people, including school children. He attacked some people at the Muriri market and attacked others along the Muriri-Isiolo Road on Monday evening, September 30.
He disappeared after the attack and police spent Monday night hunting the killer in vain.
Some reports place the death toll at 2 but some say 7 people died in the attack.
Angry locals camped at the suspected killer’s Muriri market shop forcing his family to flee for safety.
Confirming the incident, Tigania East OCPD Peter Karanja told K24 Digital that they are hunting the assailant whom he said is armed with a panga (machete) and other crude weapons.
Kileru’s wife, Gasheri, said her husband went wild at about 3 pm on September 30 and threatened to kill her and their three children.
Gasheri said that Kileru vowed to murder at least 50 people and then commit suicide.
The terrified wife said she sensed danger but her effort to stop him from his evil thoughts proved futile as he proceeded to pick a sharp panga and car keys.
She said: “He started behaving funny from Sunday when a man of Somali origin came to the shop. We were both busy but I heard the stranger threaten my husband saying he killed his camel and they are soon coming for him””
The mother-of-three, who is pregnant with another child, said that she tried to intervene by asking the stranger if they could compensate him for the camel if her husband, indeed, killed it.
But Gasheri said her husband dismissed her idea and rudely turned the man away.
Afterward, Gasheri said her husband confessed that he attacked a camel with a machete at Kiremu because it had blocked his path and damaged his car windscreen.
The incident, her husband confessed, took place when he attended a burial of a herder who was killed by a bandit at Kaongo.
Gasheri said despite the death threats, everything else seemed normal at their shop on Monday but then he became paranoid, saying he cannot just seat and wait to be killed over the camel.
“I don’t know what went wrong or what those camel owners have done to him. At about 4pm, he suddenly started shouting at me saying I will kill you and others before I take my own life. I cannot wait for them to kill me alone. And that is the time he picked the car keys and went out. In no time, I heard people screaming in the market and I got out quickly and I was shocked to see him run over people,” she said.
Afraid he would turn on her, she said she quickly ran home to pick and shield her children.
According to an eyewitness, Kileru intentionally rammed into a stationary car and sped towards the market where he ran over several people, seriously injuring five women.
The women were taken to Meru Level Five Hospital for treatment.
The eyewitnesses said his car hit a post and stalled but then he dashed out with a machete and randomly attacked everyone on sight, sending people scampering to safety.
He proceeded to a nearby Kamanoro bar where he attacked and killed a waiter on the spot, then marched on to a butchery where he inflicted serious panga cuts to an unsuspecting butcher.
In panic, people ran for cover as shop owners hurriedly closed their businesses.
Kileru is said to have picked a motorcycle and sped towards Muriri-Isiolo Road where he is alleged to have attacked several others, including children on their way home from school.
Others told K24 Digital that Kileru later attacked other people at night at Lailuba, Kiremu and Athwana in Tigania West but the reports have not been verified by police officers.
“For now, he is a dangerous person and we are calling on locals to keep vigilant and be safe because he could be armed with some other serious weapons and he is using a motorbike,” said the local police boss Karanja.