A wave of horror and outrage has swept through Soweto village in Lodwar after a 20-year-old woman was found brutally murdered in a suspected ritualistic killing.
The heinous act triggered a violent mob attack that has left three suspects in critical condition.
The body of the victim, identified as Mercy Ikiru, was discovered on Saturday morning, dumped outside the perimeter fence of a truck parking yard just three kilometres from Lodwar Police Station.
The scene that greeted authorities painted a grim picture of the victim’s final moments.
According to a police report, Ikiru’s body bore horrific injuries: both ears had been severed, the skin on her forehead peeled off, and her head sustained deep wounds.
Bruises covering her back suggested she had been dragged to the location where she was found.
The severed body parts were missing from the scene, an act investigators say is often linked to ritual practices in which body organs are harvested for occult purposes.
Detectives from the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) believe the gruesome murder took place elsewhere.
Their investigation led them about 200 meters away to a house with bloodstains on the floor, door and within the compound. Authorities designated it as the primary crime scene, suspecting Ikiru was killed there before her body was dumped. As news of the gruesome discovery spread through the close-knit community, raw grief quickly turned into uncontrollable rage.
A mob descended upon three men alleged to be behind the killing—identified as Timothy Etir, 25, Stephen Ekai, 21, and Ekwal Ekai Abas, 25—and exacted their own form of street justice.
The three men were severely beaten, sustaining serious head injuries before DCI detectives and police officers rescued them from the enraged crowd. They were taken to Lodwar County Referral Hospital (LCRH), where they are currently admitted in critical condition under heavy police security.
“This is an excruciating loss. No woman deserves to die in such a cruel manner,” one shaken villager at the scene said, speaking on condition of anonymity due to fear of reprisals. “We want justice, and we want it now.”
Turkana County Police Commander John Tarus condemned both the murder and the subsequent mob justice, urging residents to remain calm and not take the law into their own hands.
