Kisumu man suspected of killing, burying his brother arrested

A man from Kagak village in Nyakach, Kisumu County has been arrested over claims of killing and burying his elder brother in his bedroom. The dead man went missing two months ago.

According to Oboch Location Chief Jonathan Ogire, the body was found on Monday evening.

Relatives and locals expressed suspicions that the body of Mr Joseph Ochieng, 45, who had been missing for close to two months had been found.

He later engaged the family members who took them to the house of the suspect, 30-year-old Clinton Ochuodho, where they the remains of Mr Ochieng were found.

They rushed to the local police station and reported the matter and later accompanied the officers to the scene of crime together with the suspect.

DRINKING CHANG’AA

Mr Ochuodho was dragged from a chang’aa den and forced to go back to his house.

According to the chief, the two were staying together and it is suspected that they might have disagreed before Mr Ochuodho killed his elder brother.

“It appears they had quarreled before one of them died. But when I spoke to Ochuodho, he told me while crying that his brother had been missing but he suspected he had died,” said Mr Ogire.

According to the suspect, his brother told him three days before he went missing that he was going on a job-seeking mission in Thessalia, Muhoroni.

“We, however, did not buy his story because he could be seen on numerous occasions donning all the good clothes and shoes that belonged to his brother. We had a feeling that if Mr Ochieng had gone on safari for that long, he would not have left behind his clothes,” said Mr Ogire.

On Tuesday, police secured the scene as they waited for for experts to exhume the body Wednesday morning.

ORPHANS

The two, who are orphans, were staying in the small house located in an isolated place where people do not frequent owing to its steep and rocky terrain.

The mud walled incomplete house has two rooms, a sitting room and a bedroom where the old mattress was found.

Mr Ochuodho has been sleeping in the sitting room of the house.

At the time of his arrest, the suspect was also found with three sticks of bhang in his pockets.

Mr Philemon Akello, a resident of Kajimbo, described the incident as mysterious.

“I knew the children very well and I cannot imagine that the younger one could do such a thing,” said Mr Akello.

He pointed out that the suspect has never been accused of any criminal activity.

He called for tolerance and understanding between siblings and members of the public to prevent such cases from happening.

By the time the Nation left the scene, a multi-agency team from the Directorate of Criminal Investigations, the government pathologist and public health officials were yet to arrive at the scene to exhume the body.

“We are waiting for a pathologist to come and examine the body after it is dug up from where it was buried for us to establish other details pertaining the death of this man,” said Mr Ogire.

It is not clear how the murder was committed and whether there were accomplices to the crime.