A 66-year-old woman in Nakuru County, Kenya, has narrated her six-hour ordeal at the hands of her grandson, who held her in confinement and demanded money.
Joyce Chepng’etich was chained inside her bedroom by her grandson, who had lived with her for three weeks. The day started well for Ms Chepng’etich, but it took a different turn an hour after she took breakfast with her grandson. She noticed her metal box, where she keeps money, had been broken into, and a bag that was in the box was opened. Her Sh2,000 was missing.
Ms Chepng’etich asked her grandson about the missing money, but he denied having any knowledge of where the money was. The man insisted that he had not stolen the money and even volunteered to help her look for it in the bedroom, saying that it might have fallen somewhere.
However, the agitated young man immediately turned against her. He held her from the back and started strangling her, pulling her towards the bedroom.
The grandson gagged and chained Ms Chepng’etich, tying her hands from the back and covering her mouth with a piece of cloth. He then brought a kitchen knife and placed it on a cupboard next to the bed, demanding more money so he could set her free. After he realised that she had no other money, he put the music player on loud, locked the room, and left. He returned an hour later with three bananas and ordered her to eat them.
Ms Chepng’etich managed to unchain herself around 4 pm and immediately hopped to the window, calling out to her neighbours for help. Her neighbour’s children, coming home from school, heard her cries and notified their parents who came to her rescue. Rongai sub county police commander Wilberforce Sicharani said the young man was arrested by neighbours as he came back home.
The crowd subjected the man to a thorough beating, and police picked him up while he was unconscious and took him to the Nakuru Level Five hospital, where he is receiving treatment.
