A decomposed body that was found on a roadside in Naivasha, Nakuru County has been confirmed to be that of veteran Health and Science journalist Gatonye Gathura.
The body had been found on the Naivasha-Mai Mahiu Road on October 26, 2021. It has a wire on the neck and seemed to have been dumped there earlier on.
Then, it was decomposing and could be identified. The motive of the murder is yet to be established.
Gathura was working on several investigative pieces including on land and health. It is not clear if the death had anything to do with his work.
The body was then moved to the Naivasha Sub-County Referral Hospital morgue and booked as unknown.
And after close to a month of the probe, the Registrar of Persons used fingerprints to establish his identity on November 11 in a report to police.
Naivasha Sub-County Police Commander Samuel Waweru said no identification documents were found on the deceased’s body.
He said they suspect Gathura may have been strangled because a copper wire was found around his neck when his body was retrieved from the roadside in Kihoto Estate in Naivasha.
“We suspect he was killed elsewhere and the body dumped in Naivasha,” Waweru said.
The deceased journalist wrote for The Standard and Nation in the past and ran a Health and Science blog called Rocket Science (rocketsciences.co.ke).
His last article on the website titled Sterilised men protect their women against ovarian cancer – study, was published on October 19.
Prior to that, he had written two articles on October 16. One was titled Kenyans drop guard as Covid-19 fatigue sets in, and the other titled 20,000 sex workers in Nairobi have mental health issues – study.
He stayed alone in Nairobi. His family was expected in Naivasha Friday for further identification of the body.
