The man who killed his six and four-year-old daughters in their house made a confession in court on Friday.
John Maina Wang’ombe noted, however, that he was under the influence of alcohol, and therefore not in the right state of mind.
Police said he had spent all of Thursday, when he killed the children, drinking in the house in in Mishomoroni, Mombasa County, Kenya.
The suspect, who cried uncontrollably during the confession, said he began by hitting his children with a weighing machine.
He committed the crime shortly after calling them into the house to give them mangoes. His wife was at work at the time.
One of the girls was stabbed in the chest and the other in the neck.
Mr Maina then sat on a jerrican next to the bodies of his children, Angel Wanja and Grace Wangui, for about an hour.
“It is true that I killed my daughters. I was drunk … I only realised [later] that I had committed an offence,” he told Senior Principal Magistrate Diana Mochache at a Shanzu court.
The magistrate ordered that Mr Maina undergo a mental evaluation before a formal charge is preferred against him. She also allowed police to detain him at Nyali Police Station for seven days to finalise their investigations.
In an affidavit, investigating officer Billy Onyango said statements were yet to be recorded. In his prayer for Mr Maina’s seven-day detention, Mr Onyango added that it would take time for postmortem exams will be carried out and for the motive of the crime to be established.
After their father called them to have mangoes, the children dashed into the house unaware of the danger that awaited them.
A neighbour, Mrs Lina Righa, who usually gave them lunch in the absence of their mother, went to check on them when they did not respond to her calls.
It was then that she and other neighbours learned of their deaths. The case will be mentioned on December 17.