Fred Mukinda And Issa Hussein
7 September 2008
Nairobi — A Form Three girl stabbed her step-father to death because he insisted on watching the Harambee Stars football match on TV, causing her to miss her favourite weekly programme.
Armed with a kitchen knife, the 17-year-old girl, a student at a school on the outskirts of Nairobi, struck her step-father in the chest as he watched the first half of the match at their home in Kibera slums on Saturday evening.
The 44-year-old man was a security guard at a hotel in the city centre.
The Kenyan team was playing a crucial match against the Brave Warriors of Namibia, which was being telecast live on a local TV channel, while the girl wanted to follow her favourite programme on a separate station.
Moments before the tragedy, she had tried to grab the TV remote control from her stepfather in an attempt to switch the channels.
Agitated, the student walked away to the kitchen, leaving her father whose eyes were glued to the screen.
She returned armed with a kitchen knife with which she stabbed the man in the chest and fled.
The girl was arrested by police at the sprawling slum at around noon on Sunday while in hiding, almost 24 hours after the incident.
Prior to the attack, the man had told the girl that he would only surrender the remote control at the end of the match.
The attack took place at around 4.40pm, some 30 minutes after kick-off of the match, which was followed by thousands of Kenyans on TV screens in their homes.
More than 30,000 other football fans watched the match at the Kasarani stadium, which Kenya won 1-0.
According to the dead man's brother, also a security guard, his cell phone rang at around 4.45pm.
"It was my brother. He wanted me to rush back to his house, just minutes after I had left. I could tell he was in trouble because his voice was faint and it was like he was in agony," he told the Nation on Sunday. "I found him on the seat and blood was oozing from the chest," he added.
There was nobody else in the house.
Together with neighbours, they rushed the man to the MP Shah Hospital where doctors determined that he was dead.
Girl's mother
The girl's mother told the Nation: "Mzee alitaka kuona football na msichana alitaka kuona kipindi. Sikujua ni kipindi gani kwa sababu sikuwa humo ndani. Nilikuwa nikianua nguo hapo nje". (My husband wanted to watch football and my daughter was interested in another programme. I don't know which programme because I was not in the house. I was outside removing clothes from the line)."
The girl had not reported to school on Monday last week at the opening of the third term. Her mother said she was scheduled to report to a new school in Kitale this week.
Elsewhere, a desperate search for water by two children turned tragic after they died due to dehydration and hunger.
The incident occurred in Harbole Village in Fafi District where the water pans dried up and villagers have been forced to depend on water delivered by government tankers.
The two children, eight-year old Abdullahi Mohamed and Ahmed Hussein, aged six, had been left at home by their mother as she walked to the water delivery point. However, overwhelmed by thirst they decided to follow their mother to the delivery point, five kilometres away.They got lost in the wild in the process.
Their mother, Ms Fatuma Ahmed came back home with water only to find her children missing. Villagers were mobilised for a search and rescue mission, but found the children dead after two days.
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