An Anglican priest was brutally murdered in Kapsabet town, Nandi, by a KDF officer who found him in bed with his wife.

Rev James Kemei, 43, had visited the woman, a lay reader at St Barnabas church in Kapsabet, for the night unaware that the husband had set a trap for him.

The military officer arrived in his matrimonial home that night.

He sneaked into the house at Cheplengu village next to Mother Fransca hospital and hid himself in one of the rooms without the knowledge of his wife and her secret lover. He had been alerted that the priest was spending nights at his home.

The officer waited stealthily for the two to go to bed. He then emerged from hiding and set upon them, clobbering the priest and immobilising him.

The enraged officer then turned to his wife, fracturing his hand, and then hammered nails into the spine of the clergyman.

Neighbours revealed that the officer placed the wife in a corner of the bedroom as he butchered her lover by cutting off his genitals as she watched.

An anonymous caller informed police of the violence at around 3am on Thursday morning, Nandi police commander Dickens Njogu said.

“It was only this morning when St Barnabas Pro-Cathedral Provost Rev Nillah Bassy came to make a formal report of the unfortunate incident that police officers moved in,” the officer said.

Neighbours rushed Rev Kemei to Kapsabet Level 5 hospital in critical condition. He was referred to Eldoret, where he was pronounced dead on arrival at Top Hill Hospital.

The KDF officer took off after the incident and police have reported the matter to his superiors.

The critically injured wife also disappeared and is suspected to have sought medical treatment at a private hospital and has not reported to the police.

“We have very scant details on the incident and DCI have taken over the investigation,” Njogu said.

Rev Kemei is from Simat in Uasin Gishu area and had been moved to Sang’alo parish in Mosop East from Kapsabet.

However, he continued living in Kapsabet with the soldier's wife as he commuted to Sang’alo, some 30km away, daily.

Efforts to get a comment from the ACK Bishop of Kapsabet Paul Korir were fruitless.