Police puzzled by dumping of bodies in Naivasha

Naivasha OCPD Titus Mathuku displays a Ceska pistol recovered from a robbery suspect shot dead by the police. Recent dumping of bodies in the sub-county has left both the police and residents puzzled. PHOTO | MACHARIA MWANGI | NATION MEDIA GROUP

What you need to know:

  • The latest find was on Tuesday morning when residents heading to work stumbled on the body of a man, about 50 metres from the Nakuru-Nairobi highway.

  • The body, which appeared to have been strangled, was the 12th to be found this year. 

  • Naivasha Hospital superintendent Joseph Mburu said most of the bodies were buried in mass graves since they were unclaimed.

Police in Naivasha are struggling to solve a puzzle involving the dumping of bodies in the sub-county. 

The latest find was on Tuesday morning when residents heading to work stumbled on the body of a man, about 50 metres from the Nakuru-Nairobi highway.

The body, which appeared to have been strangled, was the 12th to be found this year. 

“I was heading to work around 6.30am when I spotted the corpse,” Mr Jeremiah Oloo, a local, said.

It was the exact spot two male bodies were found in May. Naivasha OCPD Titus Mathuku said it appeared the victims were killed elsewhere.

UNRESOLVED

An investigating officer told the Nation that the three incidents remained unresolved.

“We still do not know if the murders are related but investigations are ongoing,” the detective said.   

The common factor is that the victims were strangled.

The body of Catholic priest John Anthony Kaiser was found in the same place on August 23, 2000.

“We are yet to establish why the area is preferred by those dumping bodies,” added the police source.

LACK IDENTIFICATION

Compounding the police woes is the fact that the bodies lack identification documents.

Naivasha Hospital superintendent Joseph Mburu said most of the bodies were buried in mass graves since they were unclaimed.

“We can’t even conduct post-mortem examinations,” Dr Mburu said.

In March, two bodies were found in Kedong area, on the outskirts of the town.

A month later, the bodies were identified to be those of terrorism suspects Fatuma Mohamed Masou and Farid Omar Awadh. They had also been strangled.

Family members identified the bodies before taking them for burial at the Naivasha Muslim Cemetery.

FOOTPATH

On March 5, the body of a man was found on a footpath leading to Namcha Village, less than five kilometres from Maai Mahiu Town.

A motorist spotted the body and alerted Maai Mahiu Police Station. Like the other victims, the man had been strangled.

In June last year, the bodies of John Njoroge, 35, and 23-year-old Harrison Mwaura from Banana in Kiambu County were found in a Naivasha thicket.

The two went missing on the same day before their bodies were found a day later.

Residents have raised concerns, asking police to speed up investigations and arrest the killers.