• The boy disappeared on May 19 but the headteacher says he was informed on May 30.
• The decomposing body was found in a toilet locked from inside.
Police are piecing together information to unravel the mysterious death of a Form Two student whose body was on Monday found on the floor of a school toilet with hands tied.
Preliminary investigations show that Wycliff Okio, 16, of Don Bosco Secondary School in Nyamira county was murdered.
The boy had been missing since May 19. His decomposing body was found by a watchman who had been attracted by a strange smell emanating from a toilet whose door was closed from inside.
The Star has established from school sources that some teachers had disciplined a number of students at the time the student went missing.
The sources said that some casual workers had been using the pit latrines and it was likely that the body could have been dumped in the particular toilet a day before it was discovered.
A police report showed that the boy's body had injuries with the hands tied at the back. A mosquito net hang loosely from the rooftop.
School principal Samuel Mabeya, through OB number 43/3/6/2019, reported that the boy had been missing from school since May 19, 2019.
The headteacher, however, told the police that it was not until May 30 that he learned of the disappearance from the class teacher.
He thereafter called the father, Robinson Mayeka, and informed him that his son was missing from the school.
On Monday, at around 5pm, school guard David Nyambane Osongo smelled some unusual odour from a toilet and decided to investigate.
Osongo noticed that one of the toilets was locked from inside. He peeped through a keyhole and saw a body on the floor. He then alerted the headteacher.
DCI officers from Keroka police station and education officers visited the scene and found the decomposing body on the floor of the toilet with the hands tied at the back.
The body was taken to a private mortuary at Keroka.
The boy's father said he was called on Thursday last week and informed that his son had sneaked from school and his whereabouts were unknown.
"This is a lie. The school administration must explain how he died. The Ministry of Education and that of Interior must come and tell us who killed my son," he said tearfully at the school compound.
Masaba North subcounty police boss Walter Abondo said they had no clear lead but had recorded statements from teachers, the watchman and other school workers.
"This is unfortunate and we expect to get to the bottom of the matter as soon as possible. This is an assurance to the family that the culprits will be arrested and will have to face the full force of the law," Abondo said.
Nyamira county Education director Nicodemus Anyang' said the ministry will conduct its own investigations.
"It is true the death raises a number of questions. We will not sit pretty and walk away before getting the culprits," he said.
Several students have recently died in unclear circumstances in schools. Some of the deaths have been linked to teachers, the very people parents have entrusted with their children's safety.