The man reportedly killed himself to avoid being lynched after he was accused of defiling a child on Monday.
According to The Star, the child’s father yesterday said he arrived home at 1pm on Monday and his eldest son told him about the incident.
He questioned his nine-year-old daughter and she explained that the man — known as Baba Ciku — sent her to buy two sweets. When she came back he started fondling her private parts.
“She took the sweets to his house. He took the sweets, closed the door, lifted her and started to caress her,”Mutasia said.
“He put her down when he heard a neighbour talk outside the house and ordered my daughter to leave the house and come back later.”
The man denied the allegations when confronted. He then disappeared. But yesterday morning, a neighbour informed the girl’s father that Baba Ciku was back at home. He went to him and told him he wanted the matter resolved by village elders.
When a village elder and other residents arrived, they found the door to his house locked. They broke it down and found his body hanging in the house.
“Residents had threatened to stone him if he didn’t go away. I think that’s why he hanged himself. He used a new rope,” resident Esther Gatibaru said yesterday.
Gatibaru, the deceased’s landlady, said Baba Ciku had lived in her house for less than two weeks.
He used to mend shoes, drums and jerrycans for the villagers.
Residents do not know where he lived before, but suspect he came from Captain in Ol Kalou.
