For a week, the family of teacher Martina Chepkemoi Rutto searched desperately for her, visiting places where they hoped she might have gone and holding on to the belief that she was still alive.
On Wednesday morning, a grim discovery in a river on the outskirts of Kericho town shattered their hopes.
The 40-year-old teacher was found in the Kimugu River barely a week after she disappeared from her home.
A resident who stumbled on Ms Rutto alerted police who retrieved her from the water, rushed her to Kericho County Referral Hospital. She was still breathing when she was found but died hours later at the hospital.
Martina Chepkemoi Rutto, the teacher at Lalagin secondary school who went missing a week ago, was stabbed five times in the chest and dumped at a river, where she was discovered before she succumbed to the injuries, in this photo taken on September 2, 2026.
Photo credit: Pool
Preliminary investigations indicate that Ms Rutto had been stabbed five times in the chest before her attackers dumped her in the river, apparently in an attempt to conceal the circumstances of her death.
The Kiswahili and History teacher at Lalagin Secondary School in Bureti constituency disappeared on August 26 after leaving home.
For days, her family and colleagues searched for her checking almost everywhere they thought she could be except the mortuary.
The family did not know that a woman who died later had already been recovered from Kimugu River and the body preserved at the county referral hospital.
It was only after receiving a tip about the unidentified body that the family began to fear the worst.
Kericho East Sub-County Director of Criminal Investigations Kennedy Apindi confirmed that police were alerted after a resident reported seeing a body floating in the river.
He said the circumstances surrounding Ms Rutto’s death remained unclear and investigators were awaiting the results of a postmortem examination.
“It is not clear at this point whether the victim was stabbed at the scene, or it is a case of an attack in another region before being dumped in the river. Some of the answers we are seeking as investigators will come out when the postmortem is conducted,” Mr Apindi said.
Police said Ms Rutto lived in a rented house in Litein trading centre and had previously taught at Litein Boys’ High School before being transferred to Lalagin Secondary School.
She had also been in the process of transferring to a school in Narok County where she planned to live with her family.
“She was in the process of getting transferred from her station to another school in Narok County where she would operate from their matrimonial home. Unfortunately, she turned up dead,” Mr Apindi said.
According to the DCI, preliminary investigations have established that Ms Rutto and her husband, who is a teacher in Nairobi, had experienced marital problems over undisclosed family issues.
He reported her disappearance at Sotik Police Station in Bomet County after failing to reach her by phone.
According to the DCI, he later told investigators that the couple had been embroiled in family wrangles before her death but denied having any role in the attack.
The murder has shocked the teaching fraternity, with the Kenya Union of Post Primary Education Teachers (Kuppet) calling for a thorough investigation.
Kuppet Kericho branch Secretary Clara Chebet and Chairman Kibet Korir condemned the killing, saying the circumstances surrounding Ms Rutto’s death had left her family, colleagues and the community devastated.
“We do not have information as to whether it is related to conflict at work or at home. We will give time to the DCI to get to the root of the matter and take appropriate action so as to ensure the family gets justice,” Ms Chebet said.
She said teachers had previously raised concerns about insecurity in parts of the county, particularly around Kapsaos.
“If she could be stabbed five times and left to die, are we safe in our stations and at work as teachers? It is very demoralising to teachers who are preparing to administer end-year examinations from the Kenya National Examinations Council,” Ms Chebet said.
The killing adds to growing concern over cases of women being murdered in the South Rift region, with residents and stakeholders increasingly calling for stronger measures to protect women and bring perpetrators to justice.
