Relatives of former Treasury employee Tom Osinde are overcome with emotion at the Kisii Teaching and Referral Hospital mortuary yesterday. Osinde’s body was transferred to the facility from the Migori Referral Hospital mortuary.
| Ruth Mbula | Nation Media GroupKisii
Premium
Tom Osinde’s body lay unidentified at Migori mortuary for 7 days
The badly decomposed body of former Treasury employee Fred Tom Mokaya Osinde lay at the Migori Referral Hospital mortuary unidentified for a week as his family frantically searched for him.
Close family members kept off the media as they searched for him, not knowing that their kin had apparently been killed and the body dumped in River Kuja, where it was found floating on June 22 in Kanga area.
Police in Rongo said they were alerted by area residents of the body. It was dressed in a black vest and a brown t-shirt. The rest of the body was naked.
“There were no visible injuries. We, however, preserved the body well at the Migori Referral Hospital mortuary awaiting identification. We dispatched a signal of the body. It was only identified on Wednesday by a close relative to Mr Osinde,” said Migori police boss Peter Kimani.
The recovery of the body follows a frantic search for Osinde in both Rongai, Nakuru County, where he has a home and in Nyamira, where he hails from.
Osinde’s brother, Enock Osinde, wrote on Facebook on Thursday morning: “Thank you, friends, for your outpouring of love, prayers, and support during my brother’s search. Unfortunately, the outcome isn’t the one we anticipated. Tom was killed, and his body was found in Migori County. Please continue praying for us as we try to come to terms.”
Yesterday, Osinde’s’s relatives transferred his body to Kisii Teaching and Referral Hospital mortuary, awaiting a post-mortem examination. The grieving family members declined to address the media.
The decomposing body of the former Treasury official was recovered from River Kuja in Migori County where his family, led by Enock Nemwel Osinde, a brother of the deceased, positively identified it.
Osinde was a brother to the late former Chief of Staff in the office of then Deputy President William Ruto Ken Osinde. Ken also served as Kenya’s Ambassador to Germany from 2010 to 2014. He died in a Nairobi hospital on December 10, 2021 after a brief illness.
Osinde was traveling from his Nakuru residence to his rural home in Borabu when he went missing on June 18. His mobile phone remained disconnected from the day he went missing.
Fresh details have since emerged following Osinde’s disappearance and eventual discovery of his body.
Police are investigating if he was drugged before he was thrown into his vehicle and driven out of his Nakuru home to Kisii, where his assailants killed him.
A team of detectives on Wednesday arrested two of Osinde’s farm workers at his Rongai home.The two, Julius Mogoi and Mugo Gathii, spoke to journalists on Sunday and expressed their shock at Osinde’s disappearance. The detectives, led by Ms Donnata Otieno, combed Osinde’s farm and interviewed workers.
“We have also questioned workers at the home and arrested two of them to further assist in the investigation. They are currently being held at Menengai Police Station. So far, we are following crucial leads and we are making great progress in the investigation,” Ms Otieno said.
She revealed that the detained suspects were being investigated for kidnapping and were taken to court on Wednesday evening where the police applied for a remand order. They were given 21 days to complete the investigations.
Also Read: Tom Mokaya Osinde’s last moments
It emerged that Mr Mogoi was seen driving Osinde’s car two days before it was found abandoned in Trans Mara West. Multiple interviews indicated that Mogoi drove the car to his home in Nyakeyo and parked it in his neighbour’s compound.
This was the first time the suspect had been seen at the house in three years, allegedly after fleeing following another crime linked to him.
The Nation has established that Mr Mogoi is a suspect in another murder that took place years ago. It is not clear how he secured his freedom before leaving Kisii to work at Osinde’s Ngata home.
“I asked him whose car it was and he said it belongs to his boss,” Mogoi’s neighbour Samson Osiro said. He added that there were various items in the car, including a generator and a power saw.
Neighbours said Mr Mogoi engaged some young men to wash the car before he took them to a food joint where they had tea.
“We didn’t wash the inside of the car. He said it had a lot of luggage,” one of the youth.
The vehicle belonging to Mr Osinde was on Saturday identified by his family at Kilgoris Police station, Narok County. Trans Mara West Sub County Police Commander Jamlek Ngaruiya said that the vehicle was positively identified by Osinde’s son.
“The black Land Cruiser car was found abandoned at Ilpashire along the Sikawa-Enoosaen road on Thursday June 22, 2023. The son of the missing person identified the vehicle today (Saturday) morning and confirmed that it indeed belongs to his missing father,” Mr Ngaruiya said.
According to Mr Ngaruiya, they first received a tip-off from the public in Ilpashire, saying that they were convinced that the vehicle had been abandoned.
The car’s number plate was missing the battery and radio, Mr Ngaruiya said. He revealed that some documents were also found in the car and that they are being used in the investigation.
Osinde attended the University of Nairobi, where he studied economics. After graduating, he spent years working for the Ministry of Finance. He recently retired from the Treasury and ventured into business.
