Enock Onsanze 29, accused of killing his three nephews on May 13, 2017, in Uasin Gishu County, has been handed a death sentence by the Eldoret High Court.
Justice Steven Githinji found Enock guilty for each of the three murders that captured headlines in the run-up to the 2017 elections when the three boys, Clifford Nyambane,6, Dan Nyamweya,5, and Glen Ongagi,3, went missing at their home in Kapsoya.
According to the evidence presented before the court, the children of the then Kapsoya MCA aspirant James Ratemo, who is also an elder brother to the accused, were reported missing on a Saturday when they failed to return home from church.
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Their bodies would later be discovered dumped in River Nzoia in Soy five days after frantic efforts both by family and police to trace the three minors bore no fruits.
Postmortem report later revealed that the three minors died as a result of strangulation.
In his ruling, Justice Githinji said the prosecution had proved beyond any doubt that Onsanze was the last person to have been seen with the children in Eldoret town on the same day they went missing.
“While no one has testified having seen the accused person murder the three victims, there is cogent circumstantial evidence from a number of witnesses that saw the accused in the company of the three children. This is a person who capitalized on his familiarity and trust with the children to lure them away,” Githinji stated.
The court also established that existing bad blood between the accused person and his brother at the time of the incident could have been a probable cause for the gruesome murder of the latter’s children.
“Prior to the incident, Onsanze had threatened his elder brother with unknown dire consequences when two disagreed over family property. Therefore, after careful consideration of the evidence presented before this court, the accused person is hereby sentenced to death,” Justice Githinji ruled.
The accused has been given 14 days to appeal the ruling.
