Jackton Odhiambo, the 24-year-old partner of Kenyan LGBTQ activist, Edwin Chiloba, has confessed to killing him and depositing his body by the roadside over allegations that he cheated on him.
Chiloba, 25, was found dead in a metal box by the roadside in Uasin Gishu County, about 40 kilometres (25 miles) outside the Rift Valley town of Eldoret after it was reportedly dumped from a moving car.
According to the Police, three more suspects were also arrested in a probe into the brutal murder of Edwin Kiprotich Kiptoo alias Chiloba. This brings to four, the number of those in custody.
The three were arrested for assisting in carrying a metal box that was used in disposing Chiloba’s body.
The three are young men, two of whom are under 18 years.
The Police spokeswoman, Resla Onyango, who disclosed these said detectives have also detained a car that was used in disposing of the body on the road. She added that love triangle is among the theories they are pursuing for now.
The prime suspect, Jackton Odhiambo, confessed to killing the model over allegations that he cheated on him.
According to Police, Jackton executed the murder with the help of his two friends. The suspect said he murdered Chiloba as revenge for betraying him.
Jackton, who had been staying with the deceased for one year in Eldoret was arrested on Friday, 6 January, as the main suspect in the murder. The two lived together as husband and wife.
Chiloba’s caretaker, Alex Nyamweya, said that Jackton called him using Chiloba’s phone on 4 January, informing him that he was vacating the house they lived in.
Police said Jackton vacated the house with immediate effect.
Police disclosed that Jackton told curious neighbours who had perceived a bad smell from a house Chiloba stayed with him and two others that it was a dead rat that had died there and that he was trying to remove it.
The Uasin Gishu county DCI boss, Peter Kimulwo, said, “He told the neighbours it was a dead rat that was smelling when they sought to know what was smelling from the house they lived.”
The neighbours had seen Jackton with the metal box a day earlier. Kimulwo said preliminary findings show the deceased appeared to have been strangled and one eye was gouged out.
The body was dumped in Halingham near Kipkaren.
Kimulwo said a chief informed police that a metal box was dropped by the roadside in Kipkaren area on January 3, 2023.
Residents found a dead body of an adult wrapped in a woman’s dress in the metal box.
Kimulwo said on New Year eve, Chiloba and friends went to Tamasha club and came back at around 3am to where they lived.
When they arrived, neighbours heard commotion and cries which subsided minutes later.
On January 3, neighbours saw a vehicle with two people loading a metal box into the vehicle and left.
“We suspect the noise heard earlier by the neighbours was the time the deceased was killed,” Kimulwo said.
He said the suspect and the deceased lived together as partners. He had arrived from Nairobi for the new year celebrations.
The family positively identified his body at the Moi Referral Hospital morgue in Eldoret.
His sister Melvin narrated her final moments with Chiloba with whom they met for new year celebrations at Tamasha place in Eldoret.
Melvin works at Tamasha and says Chiloba arrived at about 10pm with a friend whom she did not know.
“At about 1 am after the new year fireworks, I met him and he bid me farewell saying he would miss me,” she told journalists.
The Star newspaper reported that a post-mortem would be carried out on Monday, while the family was preparing for a burial on Saturday.
“He died a painful death,” an unidentified police officer based in Eldoret told the media last week. “They must have tortured him and then gouged out his eye. It appears he was strangled.”
UN human rights chief Volker Turk said on Saturday he was “shaken” by Chiloba’s death.
“Standing in solidarity with LGBTQ!+ activists around the world. Urgent need to redouble efforts for their protection,” he said on Twitter.
His call was echoed by the African Union’s human rights commissioner Solomon Ayele Dersso who issued a statement Saturday condemning Chiloba’s killing and saying it appeared it was “a result of hate”.
Dersso urged Kenya to initiate a “transparent, thorough, and prompt investigation” into the murder and bring those responsible to justice.
He also called on Kenya and other AU members to take measures to ensure that “all vulnerable members of society, including those who are or are perceived to be different from the mainstream members of society including on account of their sexual or gender identity, are guaranteed to live a life free from the threat of violent attacks”.