A Kenyan pastor horrified his congregation when he repeatedly stabbed his wife in the pulpit during Sunday service and then sliced his own throat.
Mr Elisha Misiko, 55, was the pastor of the Ground for God's Gospel Ministries in Mombasa County, which he co-managed with his wife, Ms Ann Mghoi.
One of the village elders Mr Mtengo Amuri said that Mr Msiko sat down calmly at the start of the Sunday service before standing up and moving 'stealthily' towards his wife, revealing the two knives hidden under his shirt as he walked.
'The husband moved stealthily towards his wife and stabbed her in the back,' Amuri said. 'When he tried to slit her throat, she blocked him, injuring her hand.'
A police report confirmed that Ms Mghoi, who was the mother of Mr Msiko's four children, bore knife wounds in the back, hand and stomach.
Eyewitnesses said that Mr Msiko repeatedly knifed the mother-of-four before worshippers intervened and arranged for her to be driven to a local hospital but medical staff were unable to save her.
While doctors were working on Ms Mghoi, her husband stabbed himself in the stomach and cut his own throat.
Janet Tole, a friend of the couple, told the Daily Nation the husband and wife had been warring for months and that they were separated. Ms Tole said that Msiko was convinced his wife was barring him from seeing his four children.
She added that he had threatened to kill his spouse on multiple occasions.
A suicide note left at the scene confirmed Ms Tole's account.
'In the notes, the husband claimed the wife barred him from meeting his four children and was also not involving him in management of the church despite having funded it through a loan, which he was still servicing,' Kisauni Sub-County Police Commander Julius Kiragu, said.
Mr Amuri confirmed the accounts, claiming the murder-suicide was the culmination of many years of disputes over the management of the church and Msiko was fixated with the idea that his wife was trying to take control of the ministry.
This article has been adapted from its original source.
