Police in Turbo, Uasin Gishu County have launched a manhunt for a man accused of killing his one-week-old stepson on Tuesday afternoon. 

Daniel Kipchumba is said to have tricked his wife into going outside the house to call for help after feigning sickness in the 4 a.m. incident.

A police report released on Tuesday afternoon said Kipchumba had reunited with his wife of 12 years, Grace Atwoli, in December last year after they separated in 2019.

She was at the time heavily pregnant from a relationship with another man.

“This appeared to have irked Kipchumba who had since married another woman during the first wife’s absence and moved in with her, in his mother’s compound. But unknown to Grace, Kipchumba had hatched a plot to take away the life her little bundle of joy,” police said.

Kipchumba is said to have told his wife that he was feeling quite unwell and asked her to call his mother and his second wife to assist him get to hospital.

But when she returned accompanied by her step mother and co-wife, the husband could not be found. The three were met with the lifeless body of the week-old baby lying on a mattress with visible marks on the neck, covered with blood.

“The baby’s head also appeared to have been hit with a blunt object,” the report added.

The body was moved to Kimbilio Nursing Home Hospital morgue awaiting autopsy.