Kenyan police in Murang’a County have launched a manhunt for a retired Anglican Church of Kenya clergyman who allegedly killed his own son with the assistance of his other son.

According to NairobiNews, the incident took place on Sunday morning when the father and his elder son picked their kin at home where he was sleeping and tied him around a tree in their homestead and beat him to death.

An eyewitness, a grandchild to the clergyman, gave a blow-by-blow account of what happened, saying the father to the deceased had on Saturday called his other son who lived some kilometres away and instructed him to report to his home early in the morning for an assignment.

“I overheard my grandfather call my uncle urging him to report early in the morning to assist him with some chores. When he arrived, he was informed that they needed first to discipline my uncle (the deceased) and that’s when they picked him… they tied him around and descended on him with sticks until he died,” the witness said.

He said the deceased kept screaming and making distress calls but none of the neighbours came since there is bad blood in the neighbourhood.

An eyewitness said the suspects decided to ‘discipline’ the deceased after he was accused of stealing farm produce.

The suspect’s mother was in the homestead when the incident happened.

“She made desperate efforts to have his father, my grandfather, not kill him. I was also threatened not to go near the scene or else I would be disciplined too. After the incident I called my parents who live in Nyeri and informed them of the matter,” he said.

Locals described the deceased as a peace loving, hardworking and social man who farmed tomatoes for them.

They said the main suspect retired from service last year after serving as an evangelist.

“The deceased was social but had issues with his father emanating from a land dispute, John Kiiru, a resident told NairobiNews.

The body of the deceased had severe injuries.