Tindana, charged with two offences of murder under section 46 of the Criminal Offences Act of 1960, Act 29, pleaded not guilty.

But the Court presided over by Mr Charles Adjei Wilson, Regional Supervising High Court Judge, with a unanimous decision from a seven-member jury Tindana himself selected, found him guilty and sentenced him to death.

Prosecuting Senior State Attorney, Mrs Joyce Debrah said Tindana is a self-acclaimed traditional spiritualist from Kulpeliga in the Talensi District of the Upper East Region and the husband and father to the deceased, 25-year Talata Abigail Kurug and two-year-old Nyapoka Mbawona Tidana.

According to Prosecution, Tindana had accused his wife and daughter of being witches.

The prosecution said on June 27, 2019, at about 1630 hours, deceased wife who had gone out of the house, was told by their son that the Tindan who is also the ‘Tindana’ for the area had killed his sister and sacrificed her to the gods.

The prosecution said the deceased then rushed back to the house and saw the daughter lying dead, in a pool of blood with the brains scattered.

The Prosecution said out of shock, the deceased collapsed and the accused pounced and hit her with an axe and a machete on the head, thereby killing her in addition to their daughter.

He also hit his son with the matchet but the son managed to escape and was saved by young people who were playing football near their house and later took him to the hospital for treatment.

The prosecution said an eyewitness who saw the action could not save them due to the axe and machete Tindana was holding, so she hid and later alerted the police who came and arrested the accused person.

A police report said two deceased were found dead in a pool of blood and discovered an axe and a machete stained with blood lying on the ground beside the deceased.

A medical report also indicated that the deceased was hit by strong objects causing serious head injuries that led to their death.

Paul Murage Njuki is said to have murdered his wife and children using an axe on Monday, November 29, according to Gichugu sub-county Police Commander Anthony Mbogo, who confirmed the incident.

The five victims of the alarming crime have been identified as Millicent Muthoni, 38, Nelly Wawira, 13, Gifton Bundi aged seven, Sheromit Wambui aged five, and one-year-old Clifton Njuk.

Following the slaughter of his whole family, Mbogo explains that Njuki surrendered himself to the Kianyaga Police Station, on the demand to be arrested and locked up for six months on the charge of selling bhang (a paste made from leaves of the marijuana plant).

“I was shocked and ordered my officers to investigate him. He shocked my officers by telling them he had killed his wife and their four children,” recalls Mbogo.

The first victim of the rage attack was the suspect’s wife, whose life he declares to have put an end to using an axe, before moving on to kill the children.

“He hit them with a blunt object before cutting them. He led us to where he said he hid the axe but we did not find anything because of the heavy rains. We are still doing more investigations,” Mbogo states.

The bodies all had severe stab wounds to their heads when found in their beds by police who visited the scene at around 10.30 pm on Monday evening.

Njuki is also suspected to have raped his eldest daughter prior to taking her life. It is believed that he later hid the killer axe along the river banks in his neighbourhood.

No clear reason has been given as to why Njuki murdered his family, according to Mbogo.

However, according to village residents, they overheard a quarrel over the lack of onion present in the family’s dinner.

Njuki is said to have wanted onions in his food, but the wife insisted she didn’t have any.

The suspect is currently being held at Kirinyaga police station, explains Mbogo, while the five corpses have been brought to Kerugoya hospital mortuary, awaiting a postmortem.