It's a great question, and one of the biggest problems in the play. Why does Macbeth kill Duncan when Duncan has two sons who would legally just succeed their father's throne? It doesn't make any sense. But the reason Macbeth does it is quite simple: because of the witches' prophecy in his first scene:
All hail, Macbeth, who shalt be king hereafter.
Though it doesn't quite make absolute sense, Shakespeare handles it by having Malcolm and Donalbain, Duncan's two sons, run away to England and Ireland respectively - and everyone, we learn later from Macduff, suspects them of their father's murder. By some process or other (unexplained by the play) Macbeth then ascends the throne.
Yet the heir to the throne is still a problem. Macbeth knows that the witches predicted that Banquo would "get kings" (beget kings - father kings) though Banquo himself would never be a king. Therefore, when Macbeth is the king, he needs to secure his throne - he is terrified that Banquo's children will steal his throne. Yet Lady Macbeth and Macbeth are childless:
Our fears in Banquo
Stick deep...
They hail'd him father to a line of kings:
Upon my head they placed a fruitless crown
And put a barren sceptre in my gripe,
Thence to be wrench'd with an unlineal hand,
No son of mine succeeding.
Macbeth is aware that he needs to remove the competition: but also that he needs to solve the succession problem - a king with a son means a stable country. A king with no heir - doesn't.
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