A 23-year old man from Murang’a County is in police custody after he was caught on camera tossing his four-month-old baby across the family’s living room before the kid died.

Detectives based in Gatanga area of Murang’a County arrested the young father for allegedly killing the baby during a domestic fight with his wife.

According to a police report, the Tuesday, January 25 incident was reported by the suspect’s father after he was informed by his daughter-in-law what had transpired.

CCTV footage of the scene showed the suspect beating his wife with what looked like a belt before picking their son laying next to her and tossing him against the wall.

The police stated that during the fight, the suspect grabbed the infant and tossed him over the sofa. The infant died on the spot after landing on the concrete floor.

According to the police report, the suspect threatened his wife not to raise alarm over the death of the infant.

Further, the police revealed that the couple was engaged in a physical fight after the man claimed that the child was not his biological son.

The police report further indicated that the suspect’s wife fled the house, raising an alarm that prompted the neighbors to respond to her distress calls.

The body of the four-month-old was moved to General Kago hospital mortuary in Thika awaiting post-mortem.

The incident came just a day after the BBC aired an expose on the rising cases of Gender Based Violence (GBV) since the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic early 2020. The programme indicated that children were the biggest victims. 

BBC reporter, Tom Odula, investigated the incidents and exposed how victims were being held back from speaking until it was too late.

Police were also accused of laxity in probing and prosecuting suspects. The Judiciary was also put on the spot for being slow in concluding such cases.