Police identify body found in Nyamira shallow grave

Detectives in Nyamira County have said a body exhumed from a shallow grave in Nyamaruo belongs to a medical officer who went missing in February.

Authorities identified the remains as those of 41-year-old Duke Nyang’au Obasancho.  Preliminary findings show he had a penetrating neck wound.

Police confirmed his identity after matching his fingerprints with records at the National Registration Bureau (NRB).

Obasancho, from Kemera Location in Manga Sub-county, was reported missing on February 23. At the time, he was serving as a medical superintendent and community health nursing officer at Nyamusi Sub-County Hospital.

Authorities are treating the case as a murder and are investigating who killed him and why.

The development comes as investigators probe the discovery of 33 bodies and six body parts in a mass grave in Kericho County. Some of the bodies, including those of children, were found in gunny bags.

The case has drawn national and international attention, with homicide detectives pitching camp at the site for the past five days.

The Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) said preliminary findings showed that 13 unclaimed bodies in neighboring Nyamira had been cleared for disposal and were taken to Kericho for burial on March 20.

Kericho Criminal Investigations Officer Ethaiba Mwenda said police were not informed of the planned burial.

“The police were not notified of the intention to bury the bodies in Kericho,” he told The Standard.

Two people, Richard Towett, a public cemetery caretaker, and David Araka, a records officer at Nyamira County Referral Hospital, are now in custody. A court allowed police to detain them for 30 days as investigations continue.

Homicide detectives have raised concerns about discrepancies in the number of bodies approved for disposal in a court order.

“Preliminary investigations have established discrepancies between the number of the deceased persons disclosed by the respondents, the reportees, and the suspected altered or forged court orders give an inference of efforts to conceal evidence on offences under investigations,” Chief Inspector Peter Kamau said in his affidavit to the court.

Six street boys hired to assist with the burials told investigators they were paid Sh1,000.