Four people were arrested on Tuesday after they were found with the phone of slain Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission official Daniel Musyoka.
The men were arrested as suspects in the murder of Musyoka, whose body was discovered in Loitoktok, Kajiado on August 15, days after he was kidnapped by unknown people from the Embakasi area.
In the August 9 elections, he served as the Returning Officer for the Embakasi East Constituency.
According to police, the detained suspects handled the deceased’s phone and formatted it before selling it to an unsuspecting woman in Kisii.
Three technicians who repair mobile phones in the Central Business District are among the suspects.
Detectives said they tracked down the woman in Kisii and recovered the phone before rounding up the other men who had handled the device.
One of the suspects told police that he found the phone on Mombasa Road on August 14, three days after Musyoka vanished.
He then took it to the city center’s technicians for repairs and formatting.
“He says he did not know the phone belonged to someone who had been killed and that he took it to the people who repair the gadgets before he sold it to the woman,” said a police officer aware of the probe.
The four suspects spent Tuesday night in custody before they were arraigned at Makadara Law Courts on Wednesday morning.
The aging woman was questioned and released as police may turn her into a witness.
She told police that a relative had purchased it for her and that she had used it for a month.
The detectives stated that they do not believe they have identified the primary killers of Musyoka, but that investigations are ongoing.
The IEBC official first went missing on August 11, approximately three days after Kenyans headed to the polls.
Investigations at the time indicated that Musyoka was killed elsewhere before his body was dumped in the forest. The body had visible signs of torture and struggle.
In a subsequent statement following his demise, IEBC Chairperson Wafula Chebukati noted that Musyoka’s perpetrators were upset by his refusal to compromise his integrity.
An autopsy carried out on his body later ascertained that the deceased was strangled to death leading to a probe into his mysterious death.
Investigations are still ongoing.
