A pastor and his family are being detained by Kitui police officers for allegedly being involved in the murder of a form three student.

The body of the teenager identified as Alice Mulewa Anne was discovered at a foot path near the pastors home, leading to the arrests. The pastors children are believed to have helped  their father in disposing the body of the Mikongooni Mixed Day Secondary School student.

According to Anne’s mother, her daughter left school  on Wednesday last week and stopped at the pastor’s barbershop which was at the shopping centre. She was attended to by one of the pastor’s sons, who is also her schoolmate. She then left the market around 6:30pm in the evening but never reached home, which is barely two kilometres away.

“I got worried when she did not turn up and went out to look for her because it was unusual for her to be out late at night, but the search turned up nothing,” said the grieving single mother, adding that she went to went to the shopping centre to look for her. She was however told that Anne had left before sunset, using an isolated village footpath that passes through the pastor’s farm as a shortcut to her home.

The next morning was horrific when the mother was summoned by neighbours who had stumbled upon her daughter’s abandoned body between her home and the pastors’ farm.The body had intense bite marks on her face and hands and  blood oozing from her genitals, suggesting death by struggling and rape

The  burns on the elbows suggested that she may have been taken to the scene on a motorcycle after she was killed, as her  free hands had been in contact with the exhaust pipe. There was also a deep wound on the back of her head

Detectives believe that the girl was abducted on her way home from the barber shop and taken to the pastor’s house, where she was raped and then killed. This has been a shock to the village because the pastor was held in high esteem and respect and even the victim’s family attended the pastor’s church.

The pastor denied that the student had been shaved at his barbershop, despite being present on the premises, while his son confirmed to police that he had indeed attended to the girl in his father’s presence.

Women leaders in Kitui County, led by former governor Charity Ngilu and women’s representative Irene Kasalu, condemned the killing and urged police to speed up investigations to bring the alleged killers to justice.