15 March 2023

• Before the gruesome discovery Nyamai had been missing for several days.

Syengo Nyamai , A form two student from Mavindini Day Mixed Secondary School is dead.

It is alleged the student was murdered over Ksh 200,000 he won in a lottery with a local Betting firm.

The 17-year-old boy was found murdered and his body dumped in a thicket a few kilometres from his rural home in Maliku area in Katulani district.

Before the gruesome discovery Nyamai had been missing for several days.

His body, with the eyes gouged out, was discovered in a thicket six days after he was last seen — on Saturday, March 4.

A post-mortem done at the Kitui County Referral Hospital revealed that his eyes were gouged out, his right hand was broken and there were injuries on the head.

The family got alarmed when Syengo failed to return home in the evening on the second day, and upon checking, they were told he had not been to school.

As the search for his whereabouts progressed, one of his two friends who is in police custody, came forward and told the family that Syengo had told them of plans to travel to Mombasa and he was to contact them upon reaching there to help in replacing his mobile line.

The scene where his body was found had motorcycle tire tracks, suggesting he might have been killed elsewhere and his body ferried to the place on the motorbike.

Syengo Nyamai is said to have won the money two weeks ago when he gambled in the 2023 Carabao Cup final match pitting Manchester United and Newcastle United.

The match was played on February 26 at the Wembley Stadium in London, UK.

Sources indicate the deceased had used a neighbors Identity Card to register his sim card.

Syengo was last seen on the morning of Monday, February 27, when he left for school as usual, but he never arrived there.

He had spent the previous evening with the two young friends – who have now been detained by detectives investigating the case – at the local shopping centre, where they watched the Carabao Cup Final, and stayed together late into the night.

Katulani DCI boss Collins Karanja confirmed that police had obtained custodial orders from the court to detain for questioning the two suspects who were last seen with the student.

“There’s very little we can divulge at the moment because the investigations are at the preliminary stage, but so far, we are holding two suspects and we are keen to establish the motive of the murder,” said the detective.