Missing trader’s body retrieved in Kinale forest, some body parts missing

By Antony Gitonga

NAIVASHA, KENYA: A missing prominent Kinangop trader was brutally murdered and his body dumped in Kinale forest along the Nairobi-Nakuru highway.

The trader who went missing a week ago was found with some body parts missing and indications that he had been tortured before being killed.

Residents were able to identify the of the 42-year old man as David Mwangi a real property agent based in Magumu Kinangop in Nyandarua County.

The father of five had his head nearly decapitated, his ears were missing and there were signs that he had been hit by a blunt object on the head.

Incidentally, the trader was in the final stages of a Sh3m land sale deal in Thika and its suspected the would-be-buyers were behind the murder.

Speaking at the Naivasha district hospital mortuary, his elder brother John Ng’ang’a said that the trader went missing on Monday last week.

He told of their fruitless efforts to trace him adding that before the incident, a group of four men had visited him and wanted to buy a parcel of land in Thika.

“He was involved in the sale of land and motor vehicles and some men had been visiting him seeking to buy land in Thika and we suspect that they are behind this murder,” he said.

Ng’ang’a said that the deceased had earlier been threatened by another person over the sale of land and the case was still pending at the Naivasha law courts.

The emotional kin narrated how the brother was brutally murdered and the body dumped in the notorious forest.

“We were informed by members of the public who spotted the body and on checking confirmed that it was him,” he said.

A local leader David Kinyanjui said that the trader could have been killed elsewhere and the body dumped in the forest.

He said that before going missing, the trader informed a colleague that he was heading to Thika to finish the Sh3m deal with the land buyers.

“The last person to see him said that he had accompanied some men who wanted to buy the piece of land and that was the last time he was seen,” he said.

He called on the government to address the issue of SIM card registration adding that those mobile phone numbers used in calling the deceased were not registered.

A senior police officer from Njabini police station confirmed the recovery of the body adding that investigations had started though no arrest had been made.