Body found burning by the roadside in Ngomongo village, Kirinyaga

A man's body was found burning by the roadside in Ngomongo village near Kutus town.

The residents said the man had a tyre around his neck and his hands and legs were tied with ropes.

John Ngari, a resident, said he had passed by the spot at about 9pm on Saturday but had not noticed anything out of the ordinary.

“At about 10pm, while on my way home, I noticed that something was burning by the roadside. When I approached I saw that it was a man on fire,” Mr Ngari added.

Patrons from two nearby bars rushed to the scene but it was too late to save the man as his upper torso had already been burnt beyond recognition.

“On getting to the scene we found a mobile phone in the victim’s trouser pockets and upon retrieving it police called his wife, who was reached at Kirutira village 10 kilometres away,” said Julius Kimani, another witness.

HIGH INTENSITY

Ngari said that, going by what he had noticed at the scene along the Kutus-Kagio road, it appeared the body had been brought from elsewhere, dumped there, doused with petrol, and set on fire.

“If by the time I passed here I did not see anything and in less than 30 minutes on my way back, something was burning and the intensity of the fire was high, this must have been some criminals who had brought the body to the scene before setting it ablaze,“ he said.

Reports claimed that the victim was working as a supervisor for a french beans company.

Residents asked the Government to beef up security in the area due to the high population of the slum village and the students from a nearby university.

Police from the nearby Kutus patrol base took the body to the Murang'a County Hospital mortuary.