Have you noticed how many murders are reported these days where a man has killed his family? or a family member has killed another? What's happening with us people? why would a man want to kill his wife and children? Why not just leave her? Or if he has to kill, why not kill himself? And why kill the children to get back at her? The kids are innocent....... Who understands this madness? do they just wake up one day and just kill or is it something they have been contemplating for a while? What signs should one look out for in a spouse who can do such a heinous act? Do they give forewarning? if someone threatens that they can kill, should they be taken seriously or is it just bluff? Should it be reported to the police? Knowing our police force, would that increase the chances of him/her becoming more aggressive?

Its questions that keep nagging me and i dont seem to understand....and the incidences are becoming way too many..... And not just in kenya. http://www.malawivoice.com/latest-news/y/

Can anyone who has some background/experience with psychology of killers enlighten us.

Kwanza bibi yako akiwa mwanachama wa kamwerethu ......wewe kwisha!!

We are trained how to treat sickness...

and little on prevention....

mental health, as a major function....

of the overall health status of an individual...

is really examined...

until we tear our clothes from our bodies....

or the tyres of cars....

well administered psychology prevents...

a visit to the psychiatrist....

sadly we do not think we are ill...

until we drop dead....

many of us are walking madmen.....

with elaborate release valves....

like alcohol.....

pornography....

road rage....

violence....

multiple and never ending sexual relations...

all these are signs...

thus...

look for the trained hand...

to release that tension......

stress....

anguish...

before the mind erupts...

with pangas....

and more death....

@Simonkabz.....true, i know we arent angels.... my only question is, why doenst he just walk away and leave her, divorce, separate, get married to someone else?

@muganda & TRS - But is this depression carried on for years and years? Even when the family seems to be doing better than they were earlier? We used to hear of these with the poor members of the community, but it is creeping in to the middle class and the rich. Problem is, if someone doesnt believe they are sick, are they really going to accept to go for help? Just like the way the mad men/women insist they arent sick...

@pastor
i hear you loud and clear. I think sometimes there is this thing that keeps telling you that they spoke out of anger and they will come back to their senses when they cool down. There was this case, actually two, where a lady had separated with the husband and the husband was given visitation rights. One of the times he picked the kids (I think the lady lived in Umoja/mutindwa) they never came back.. he killed them and killed himself and left a note written in their blood.... some men are not able to take rejection very kindly/calmly.

@Wendz

Men from Western parts of the country have a tendency of letting their relatives know about their predicament through the media. The best way for them, according to an associate from the area, is to do nation shocking vituko so that all relatives are informed at the same time na unawacha sifa hata kama ni mbaya.

Prior to the act, the men usually sound a warning especially the veiled type. Women in most cases tend to ignore such warnings by continuing to do what prompted the threat in the first place.

That is why you find women who continue living in an abusive marriage continue to do the same mistakes (from the man's perspective) and the man continues to rain terror on her.

Why the children are dispatched also is cauze the man believes the woman is obdurate courtesy of the children as he can do nothing to her. She is the caretaker of the children and thus she believes the man cannot do without her.

The man thus has an ingrained disdain for the children. He also knows that when the children grow up and know daddy killed mummy, then he will surely be in real and imagined trouble.

If you know of someone who is facing such a crisis, send him/her to our facility at Mbagathi Way.

Our current concern is with the reducing population of children in Central Kenya. What many ppl..... let me start a thread on the same.

HOPE THIS HELPS (C&P)

"Lack of empathy and lack of remorse, are often seen in offenders of deviant crimes. Lacking empathy, offenders are able to view their victims as objects, to use and throw away as they please, not unlike a piece of garbage. By viewing the victim in this manner, offenders also seem to lack remorse for their actions, which protects them from feeling guilt. It should be noted that psychopaths can and do express feelings of empathy, remorse and guilt without actually experiencing the associated feelings. In other words, psychopaths can state that they feel sorry for their actions, or seemingly empathize for the victims, yet actually feel nothing. To the psychopath, these are simply words they have learned from others that describe the appropriate feelings, but are only used to gain a future victim's trust or to minimize punishment.

‘psychopathic offenders may be viewed as aggressive narcissists that commit offenses to restore or further build upon their own sense of being dominant, powerful, or otherwise better than their victims.’

Other indicators of psychopathy include a parasitic lifestyle and the use of superficial charm to succeed in these ventures. Although psychopaths have difficulties with relationships, they are more than willing to put on their "mask" for criminal activities that require them to be charming or demonstrate a sense of caring. Again, this is an act; one that can change very quickly because psychopaths lack the behavioral controls over sudden feelings of rage. This can lead to violence on the part of the psychopath, who does not think of the consequences of his actions.

Psychopathy is a enduring pattern of behavior. The first signs of psychopathy may be seen in childhood with early behavior problems, juvenile delinquency, and lack of long-term life goals or planning. This can and does continue into adulthood where many will meet the criteria for Antisocial Personality Disorder (ASPD) as indicated in DSM-IV (1994). Antisocial personality disorder and psychopathy have several similar criteria, yet they are not the same."


http://www.deviantcrimes.com/psychopathology.htm

Case study one

Mukovelo

He was married with 7 kids.

As he struggled to feed them, issues were coming up.

While disciplining his fifth, he noticed that a neighbour consistently showed up to ask him stop visiting cruelity on the children.
At times, the wife would say, “Mbona unachapa hawa watoto na siwako”

When this persisted, he would slap the wife for mocking him about the children. In one serious situation, Mukovelo was arrested by the local chief after the wife accused him of not bringing enough food for the whole family.

Mukovelo was beaten senseless by the chiefs APs and warned never to touch the children again.
The became courageous now that she had the chiefs support and could now tell her man off.
Mukovelo became a man under siege. He started noticing the stark different physical appearance of a number of his kids.

Just to be sure, he decided to tell his wife that he has left for Nairobi to buy some spare-parts for his car.

However, he never went very far from home. That night, he returned to his compound unnoticed and watched his house from a strategic spot. Sure enough, a man from the village showed up and your guess is as good as mine. The plane landed at the airport without much ado.

“Ha!”, it dawned on Mukovelo, “Kumbe I have always thought I have a dear one lakini ni Mraya!”.
The next day, he showed up, said he had not gotten the spare-parts and that was that. In his mind, he started filling in the jig-puzzle.
On a desolate Sunday, Mukovelo woke up with one resolution, “Wacha wasome hi shida yangu kwa gazeti”.

He waited for the wife to go to church, called the oldest child. He had prepared a panga for the occasion. On entering, the child was scythed down with one swoop of the panga. Another was called and the other three, much younger, were attacked outside near the avocado tree.

Mukovelo then went to his neighbour’s place, asked him to come along to his house.
“Huyu neighbour huja ninapompiga Shisanya na wanafanana sana.. No wonder he comes to the aid of the boy when he screams”.

Neighbour thinks , why not, Shisanya might be feeling ill and I might assist.

On peeping inside the house, a panga blow brings him down into a heap.

The culprit is now in full swing, riding the furry with a vengeance. He runs to the kachief and says things have gone out of kilter at his house. The chief, on smelling blood calls his tu APs and runs after Mukovesh.

The chief is shown into the house and on putting his head into house, a panga blow almost splits his head into two. Some more blows on his back leave deep cuts. He manages to escape with Mukovelo in hot pursuit. The APs have also taken to their heels with the smell of murder pervading the air. The chief lives to tell the story.

The mother of his children gets wind of happenings at home and rushes home only to find her dear husband waiting to dispatch her to the ether world.

Only two of the seven children survived cause they were visiting with their aunt at the time.
When he was brought to Nairobi for …., he still was asking for time to go and finish the other two kids. Mukovelo was a distant uncle to me.

And you still ask why men a murdering the whole family. It’s not smoking JAH food. Ngoma shia aka are worse than the devil himself. Pole if the truth offends someone here.

@Ms Mkenya

TV kitu gani? Look at the census again. Western/Nyanza region had one TV to 20,000 ppl. In otherwords, if this homestead has a TV, you need to travel 100km before you find another homestead with a TV (I've magnified the figures in order to drive the message home properly). Radio, the ration is 4 radios to one person, ie., in a homestead, the three sons each has a radio and mzee also has his old radio and a monogram (radio ya kinanda) if the family has an iron roof on their heads. So, hi prison break wanaionea wapi?

Anyway, the chief mentioned above actually had two children with Mukovelo's wife. That is why he gave the family's matters a first priority. For Mukovelo to have added one plus one and known the answer means he was smart.

What recourse do you give such a family man. Remember, in those areas, you must go through the chief if you have serious family issues. No courts, no lawyers, no legal representation etc. The chief is the alfa and omega.

Use of the panga has always been seen as beastly. Mukovelo would have preferred a machine gun to execute his heinous crime as it would have been more efficient. But because he used a panga, he is looked upon as being extremely evil. Heard of those guys in America who walk into a college and spray crowds with bullets? Some of these guys are as young as your son. For them, they have access to a gun. That is the difference.

NB: The chief is a man, not a woman, the neighbour was aman, Mukovelo was a man. In the scene, we had only one woman.

Am not blaming women? The woman did not wield or brandish a panga.

@Wendz

I was expecting you back here blazing like never before. Kwani what happened.

I must say that this thread has created a good forum on an issue that has puzzled me as well. Several people have raised th issue of mental illness as the main cause. My question is, is mental illness a new phenomenon? Why are these killings taking place more than in the past? Have people just started using drugs? Drugs have been there since i can remember. Why is the african american community also greatly affected by this vice. I have heard enough stories of these guys killing their girlfriends and baby mommas and even their girlfriends mothers. What is the main force behind this sudden thirst to kill? Is there anything we're overlooking. Have women all of a sudden become so intolerable? I don't buy that explanation( about the women ). Does increasing poverty or maybe hiv have anything to do with this? Hata mimi nimewezwa na mambo haya

@ bwenyenye, your argument is still one sided. It's still about blaming the woman. I heard this argument that these murders especially in western kenya have to do with the brothers who want access to the late brothers wealth whose wife and family he has inherited. Since he has no love for the woman and kids that aren't his and is only following customs and traditions, he sees it fit to eliminate them and access the wealth left behind