Eldoret: Four nabbed over man murdered, drowned in River Sosiani
Samwel Ngoko was beaten before being drowned while alive.
16d agoBY MATHEWS NDANYIRift-valley
FOUR suspects were arraigned in an Eldoret court over the murder of a man whose body was retrieved from River Kipkaren.
High Court deputy registrar Carolyne Watima directed that the four be taken to Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital for mental assessment before they are formally charged.
The suspects are Dennis Kiptoo, Elvis Kiptanui, Abiud Barkutwa, and Cornelius Keter.
Prosecutor G Kirenge applied to the court to have the suspects taken for a mental assessment before being charged with murder.
It’s alleged that they murdered Samwel Mugiro at Kipkaren estate in Kapseret subcounty within Uasin Gishu.
The suspects asked the court to free them on bond pending the hearing of their case.
“This court has no jurisdiction as concerns the application for bond at this time, and the suspects will be escorted for medical assessment,” Watima said.
She directed that they be returned to court after the assessment on June 4, 2025, for plea taking.
Family members of the deceased and human rights crusaders led by Kimutai Kirui were in court when the suspects were arraigned.
The body of Mugiro was retrieved from the river on the outskirts of Eldoret City after he went missing during protests by residents of Kipkaren estate about a month ago.
A postmortem done at MTRH revealed the body had multiple wounds caused by assault and torture.
MTRH resident pathologist Dr Benson Macharia said despite his death resulting from drowning, he had already been inflicted with multiple injuries.
“It appears the deceased sustained multiple injuries on the head, lower limbs, and upper limbs, but on top of that, we have established that what actually killed him was drowning. That means he was alive and injured by the time he was thrown into the river,” Macharia said.
The findings were supported by Dr Walter Nalianya, a private pathologist from the Independent Medico-Legal Unit, who represented the family of the deceased and other interested parties during the exercise.
Dr Nalianya said that despite the cause of the death being drowning, there were third parties involved in the death.“I agree with everything that Dr Macharia has said, and what I need to emphasise is that definitely the cause of death was drowning, but there was a third party involved,” Dr Nalianya said.
He suggested that before the death, there was apparently a struggle between the deceased and his abductors. “That is because the deceased had marks of defensive injuries in his hands.”
