• “We have the car white in colour and it will be subjected to forensic investigations tomorrow,” Kimulwo said.
• A team of forensic experts from Nairobi will arrive in Eldoret tomorrow to aid in the investigations.
Image: COURTESY
Police in Eldoret have seized a car suspected to have been used to ferry and dump the body of murdered LGBTQ activist and fashion designer Edwin Kprotrich Kiptoo alias Chiloba.
The car has been identified as a white Toyota Fielder registration No KCL 229L, which operated as a taxi within Langas estate in Eldoret town.
Uasin Gishu DCI boss Peter Kimulwo said the car was seized as it was being driven within Eldoret.
“We have the car white in colour and it will be subjected to forensic investigations tomorrow,” Kimulwo said.
A team of forensic experts from Nairobi will arrive in Eldoret tomorrow to aid in the investigations.
Kimulwo also confirmed that the three more suspects arrested, were either relatives or friends of the prime suspect in the murder.
One of them is 17 years while the other two are 18 years.
Chiloba was found murdered and his body stuffed in a metal box, which was dumped at Hurlingham village near Kipkaren, on the outskirts of Eldoret on January 3.
A postmortem on the body will be done on Monday at the Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital morgue.
His family also confirmed that he will be laid to rest at Sergoit village in Elgeyo Marakwet county on Saturday, January 14.
Gladys Chiri who is a cousin to Chiloba said they will attend the postmortem exercise and that burial arrangements were ongoing.
“We are already working on burial plans for next Saturday,” she told the Star.
Chiri spoke as police in Eldoret arrested the three more suspects linked to the murder.
They are said to have helped the prime suspect to kill the deceased on January 1.
They also allegedly loaded the body into a metal box before ferrying it using the vehicle, and dumped it at Hurlingham village near Kipkaren.
On Friday, police arrested the prime suspect, who is a Nairobi-based freelance photographer in connection with the murder.
The suspect was identified as Jacktone Odhiambo who is a longtime friend of the deceased and they had been living together.
It’s alleged that he killed Chiloba after discovering that he was in a relationship with another partner.
Police also confirmed that the prime suspect will be arraigned before an Eldoret court on Monday, where police seek more time to hold him in order to complete investigations.
Kimulwo said the deceased appeared to have been strangled and one eye was gouged out.
He said the police had been informed by a chief that a metal box was dropped by the roadside in Kipkaren on January 3.
Residents found a dead body of an adult wrapped in a woman’s dress in the metal box.
There were no identification documents on the body and it was moved to the MTRH morgue, as investigations commenced.
Police interrogated tenants of a plot in Langas, where the victim lived.
The tenants confirmed Chiloba lived in room No 11 near Noble Bliss Plaza.
The deceased was living with two others.
Kimulwo said on New Year's eve Chiloba and friends went to Tamasha club and came back to the house at around 3am.
He said when they arrived, neighbours heard a commotion and cries which later subsided.
"We suspect the noise heard earlier by the neighbours, was the time the deceased was killed," Kimulwo said.
The neighbours did not follow up and the deceased was not seen.
However, on January 3 neighbours saw two people loading a metal box into the vehicle and they left.
Neighbours also said a foul stench emanated from the house.
The arrested suspects are said to have claimed that a rat had died in the house after the neighbours sought to know why there was a stench emanating from the house.
Earlier, Chiloba's family positively identified his body at the MTRH morgue.
His sister Melvin Faith and other relatives visited the morgue to identify the body.
Faith also narrated her final moments with Chiloba after they met for New Year's celebrations at Tamasha place in Eldoret.
Faith works at Tamasha.
She said Chiloba arrived at about 10pm with a friend whom she did not know.
A video emerged of the deceased and the prime suspect while they were at the club.
"At about 1am after the New Year's fireworks, I met him and he bid me farewell saying he would miss me," Faith said.
She however said Chiloba did not look disturbed and was jovial.
"I did not sense any problem and little did I know that it would be the last time I was seeing my brother," Faith said.
The family said Chiloba was the only son in a family of three and that their parents had passed on sometime back.
He was later adopted and educated.
At the time of his death he was pursuing a course in design at the University of Eldoret.