Investigators say they have found evidence to suggest ex-Treasury official Tom Osinde may have been killed in his Nakuru home before his body was transported to Migori where it was disposed of.
The killers tried to hide the evidence in the house by cleaning the blood stains therein.
The motive behind the murder however remains a mystery even as some of the investigators believe the killers targeted the deceased’s money.
Two suspects in custody over the murder are not revealing much on the possible motive even if they claim they were sent for the mission, police aware of the probe say.
Detectives from the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) Homicide Unit joined the probe as police intensified the hunt for more possible killers of Osinde.
Osinde went missing on June 18 before his body was recovered from River Kuja in Migori County four days later.
The prime suspect cleaned up the crime scene to conceal evidence but forensics detectives, who thoroughly combed the scene, found blood samples.
The samples, which were subjected to forensic analysis, matched Osinde's DNA, police say.
Investigations show the suspect had been hired as a farmhand by Osinde three months before his brutal murder.
He had also been made supervisor at his home during the incident. Police believe Osinde hired Mogoi without knowing that the main suspect was on the run with a past assault case in his home county of Kisii.
He was also wanted for molesting a minor, police say.
The suspect is being held at the Menengai Police Station in Nakuru after the Molo Law Courts granted investigators a further 21 days to detain him.
At his Ngata residence, Osinde lived in one of the rooms of the mansion, which is still under construction.
There is also a small house in the compound where his workers say he used to relax.
The suspect and his accomplices fuelled Osinde’s four-wheel drive car at Rubis petrol station on the Nakuru-Eldoret highway on the day he had been killed.
The detectives have now placed the suspect at the scene of the murder, amid claims he confessed to senior officers to committing the murder.
Osinde died from two blows to his head, an autopsy conducted on his body showed. He was twice slashed on the head and the injuries damaged his brain.
Police plan to charge two suspects with murder. Investigators are still working on the case.
Investigators suspect he was killed on June 18, 2023 - the same day he was reported missing.
His body was discovered in river Kuja on June 22, four days after he was reported missing, and was first taken to a private mortuary in Migori which could not admit it on grounds that it was unclaimed, hence it was moved to Migori Level Four Hospital.
The deceased’s car also had some blood stains when it was recovered in Kiligoris on June 22.
The police are also investigating claims that there were other people believed to be Tanzanian nationals in the deceased's house on the day of the incident.
The officers are further seeking answers on the mysterious tampering of the electricity connection in the deceased’s house. Osinde worked in the office of the economic secretary at the treasury.
Before he went missing, his vehicle was seen leaving his residence and being driven by a strange person. Some boda boda operators near Osinde’s Ngata farm in Nakuru said Osinde would usually greet them but that day, he did not.
Detectives also said two electricity switches in the upper staircase of his Ngata home had been vandalized and part of the probe is to establish if they were vandalized before or after he went missing.
“I saw the vehicle leaving the residence but it was being driven by a strange person who did not even greet us,” one of them said.
Already, two suspects –who were arrested on June 27 -are in custody in connection to the abduction and subsequent killing of Osinde.
The prime suspect curiously arrived at their home in South Mugirango, Kisii County on the night of June 18, just hours after Osinde went missing.
This was the first time he was visiting in three years. He is said to have driven the four-wheel to a car wash in Osinde’s village a day after he was reported missing.
“He told us to wash the car from outside only because it was not dirty inside,” said one of the car wash attendants.
He then spent the night in his village with Osinde’s car, which was unusual.
He then drove it to Kilgoris and abandoned it there, police investigations show.
He told police Osinde had told him to deliver some money to a woman at a petrol station in Kericho town, which he did and talked to him when he delivered the cash on June 18.
Police say they have established the claims are not true. Osinde’s mobile phone is yet to be recovered.
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