A 7-year-old child in Laare in Meru County died hours after his father beat him. The police have taken the father into custody.
Ezra Sambo, OCS Laare police station, said the child’s father is 27 years old. He said that the father became furious and beat him severely after he was informed that the child had taken a neighbor’s phone.
According to the child’s father, that they had returned home from school with the child, to which he had gone to pay for some items the child had borrowed and misplaced.
He said that when they got inside the house, he asked the child why he did it, and an argument ensued.
“I bathed him and placed him on the bed, and had no idea he would die later,” the child’s father said.
Ezra Sambo said that the father was taken into custody when neighbors reported the incident and the child was taken to Nyambene Hospital.
“The doctors referred the child to Meru Level 5 for advanced treatment, but he died on the way. The suspect is waiting to be taken to court,” Sambo said.
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A neighbor said that she learned that the child had been beaten and then hanged by his father overnight. She said the father beat him again the next morning.
“When I asked the father to let me see the child, he became rude. I reported the incident to the police station and pleaded with the OCS to send officers to check on the child,” a neighbor said.
“When we arrived at the house, the police asked the suspect if they could see the child, but he refused,” a neighbor said.
A confrontation between the police and the suspect ensued, according to a neighbor, resulting in the child’s father being handcuffed.
She said that they took the child to the hospital with the assistance of the police, and after a medical examination, the doctors determined that the child’s brain had come into contact with the blood.
“We were referred to Meru Level 5 hospital for advanced treatment by the doctor. I called the stepmother, who took the child to the hospital, but we were told that he died on his way to the theater,” a neighbor said.
According to the suspect’s aunt, after the child’s mother died, he lived with his grandmother for a month and a half. His father later took him.
