The hearing of a case against the key suspect in the murder of LGBTQ activist Edwin Kipruto alias Chiloba was deferred on Thursday by the High Court in Eldoret.
This came after it was revealed that the Presiding Judge, Justice Reuben Nyakundi, who has been handling the case, was absent from court due to bereavement.
Twenty witnesses, including three high school students, the building’s caretaker, and a cab driver, had been lined up to testify against the primary suspect, Jacktone Odhiambo.
Chiloba was a fourth-year student at the University of Eldoret’s main campus, studying apparel fashion and design.
The accused person, who is being held at Eldoret GK remand prison denied that he killed Chiloba between December 31, 2022 and January 3, 2023.
Odhiambo, according to the charge sheet, allegedly committed the criminal offence at Noble Breeze apartment in Chebisas area in Moiben sub-county, Uasin Gishu County.
In February, the court freed four suspects linked to the murder after the prosecution said that it had no evidence to charge them following 21 days of investigations that had been granted by the court.
The slain LGBTQ activist’s body was found in a metallic box along the Kipkenyo -Kaptinga road in Uasin Gishu County on January 3.
An autopsy that was conducted on the body of the deceased by a government pathologist showed that he died of asphyxiation ( lack of oxygen).
