Family: Nakuru woman found murdered, with head missing was pregnant

Police have revealed the identity of the woman whose torso was found dumped in Nakuru two weeks ago.

This came after the main suspect in the murder ushered police to a pit latrine in Barut where he had allegedly dumped the head of the woman, Eunice Akhatenje.

Nakuru County Police Commander Peter Mwanzo said police had been looking for the suspect since Ms Akhatenje’s body was found alongside that of Geoffrey Bett.

"The suspect led us to the scene where he had disposed of the head. We managed to retrieve it with the assistance of the Nakuru fire brigade," Mr Mwanzo.

He added that the suspects fled to different parts of the country after committing the murder.

He said the main suspect was arrested last Saturday in Sotik, Bomet County.

He had been harboured by a relative in Utawala, Nairobi, and escaped to Bomet when he got wind that police were looking for him.

Ms Akhatenje’s, mother Beatrice Auma, a resident of Butere sub-county, Kakamega County, said her second-born daughter left home in 2020 to find a job in Nakuru after completing her KCPE.

She said Ms Akhatenje told the family that she had secured work as a domestic manager at a homestead in Rhonda but did not provide more details.

She said Ms Akhatenje returned to Butere on June 6 and stayed for only a week. She went back to Nakuru on the urging of her employer.

When Ms Auma reached out to her daughter a month later, her phone had been switched off.

“A day later, I saw on TV that a girl had been killed and her body dumped in Barut with no head. I panicked but I kept telling myself that was not my daughter, but as more days passed, I became suspicious as her phone was still switched off,” she said.

Two weeks later, she decided to travel to Nakuru to search for her daughter, only to be referred to a morgue to view a body that was lying there. She identified her daughter through a birthmark on the left leg.

She said her daughter had told her she was pregnant but did not reveal who was responsible.

“It was heartbreaking to see my daughter, whom I had seen alive one month earlier, lying lifeless at the mortuary with no head. I had to gather courage to see her but we thank God her head has been found. We have endured sleepless nights as a family,” she said.

Ms Akhatenje’s cousin, Jacton Atenyi, a resident of Rhonda, said he met her seven months after she came to Nakuru and she told him she was living with her boyfriend, only identified as Marto.

Three months into their relationship, she had revealed, the boyfriend became violent, forcing her to move to her cousin’s place. Mr Atenyi volunteered to give her bus fare so she could return to Kakamega.

He said the two later reconciled and she came back to Nakuru without telling him and switched her phone.

“When she came back, she found out that the boyfriend was living with another woman and came to my house. I had even rented a house for her next door. I wanted the best for her. She was still young. I tried talking to the boyfriend but he became angry, saying that I was interfering in their relationship,” he said.

Mr Atenyi said that neighbours had spotted Marto coming out of Ms Akhatanje’s house the night she went missing. They said he left the house looking very angry.

The police are still investigating the motive of the killing and whether the two murders were linked.

"We suspect that the decapitation was an act of revenge between members of different gangs in Rhonda and Bondeni areas where most Confirm gang members clash," he said.

Residents stumbled on the torso of the woman on the morning of July 13. It took police two weeks to establish the whereabouts of her head.

A few metres from where the woman’s body was found, schoolchildren had found the body of a man, later identified as Geoffrey Bett, 48, with several suspected knife injuries.

Mr Mwanzo said the woman was gang-raped before being killed.

“We want to thank the public because through the information they volunteered to us, it has really helped. I want to promise the people of Barut that we are not going to stop [nor] are we going to get tired until these criminal activities around here are wiped out,” he said.