TUK Lecturer Hacked to Death by Brothers in Brutal Homa Bay Land Dispute

A senior academic from the Technical University of Kenya (TUK) was hacked to death on Tuesday morning in a bloody family feud over land in Waware village, Suba North Sub-County, Homa Bay.

Prof. Thomas Tonny Onyango Mboya, 56, an Associate Professor of Mathematics and Director of the School of Mathematics and Statistics at TUK, was attacked while erecting beacons on the contested parcel, police confirmed.

His father, Wilson Onyango Opanga, sustained deep machete wounds and is fighting for his life at a hospital in Homa Bay.

The assailants, believed to be Prof. Mboya’s own brothers, reportedly struck after a court ruling ordered one of them to demolish illegal structures built on the disputed land.

Instead of complying, the suspect returned armed with a panga, decapitating the professor before turning the weapon on their elderly father.

Witnesses said residents rushed to the scene after hearing screams but the killers managed to flee before a mob could catch them.

Nyanza Regional DCI boss George Mutonya said the professor had been waiting for police and the area chief to supervise the court order when his attackers pounced.

“By the time police arrived, the assailants had escaped. We are pursuing them and will use all means to bring them to justice,” Mutonya said.

The gruesome murder has sparked outrage and shock. Suba North MP Millie Odhiambo condemned the killing, describing it as a tragic reminder of how land disputes continue to fuel deadly violence in rural Kenya.

“The murder of Professor Thomas Mboya of Rusinga Island is unfortunate. Violence never sorts out issues. May the killers and their accomplices be brought to book,” she wrote on social media.

Colleagues and friends mourned Prof. Mboya as a brilliant scholar and a kind mentor. His academic journey reflected years of commitment to teaching and research.

Born in 1970, he attended Kokuro Secondary and Homa Bay High before studying for a Bachelor of Education (Science) at Egerton University.

He later earned a Master of Science in Mathematics from the University of Nairobi and went on to obtain a PhD in Inverse and Ill-posed Problems from the University of Leeds in 2008.

Prof. Mboya’s career spanned over three decades, beginning under the Teachers Service Commission before lecturing at the Catholic University of Eastern Africa and later joining TUK in 2012.

At TUK, he rose through the ranks, serving as chair of the Department of Statistics and Computational Mathematics and later as Head of the Department of Industrial and Engineering Mathematics.

His death not only robs Kenya’s academic community of a seasoned scholar but also casts a harsh spotlight on the deadly land disputes that continue to tear families apart in rural areas.

Police have launched a manhunt for the suspects as Prof. Mboya’s family and colleagues demand swift justice.