Police in Thika, Kiambu County, are investigating an incident in which a man was found murdered and his skin removed yesterday.
Thika East police boss Kutima Namutali told the Nation that the body of Mr Simon Githae, 36, was discovered by local residents who later informed the police.
The incident is currently being treated as a case of murder and investigations are underway.
‘’What we understand so far is that the deceased is a 36-year-old man named Simon Githae whose body was discovered this morning in Gatuanyaga in Thika by the locals who alerted the police,’’ said Mr Natumali.
‘’Mr Githae until his death worked as a farmhand at a nearby flower farm and we are liaising with detectives from Thika to find out how the victim met his death,’’ he added.
Mobile phone
The police boss further said detectives are probing the victim’s mobile phone to establish who Mr Githae may have spoken to before his death.
The body was taken to General Kago Funeral Home in Thika and has been positively identified by family members, a morgue attendant at the facility told Nation in confidence as he is not authorized to speak to the press on behalf of the facility. The skin had been removed from the body except for the head and the lower parts of the legs.
‘’The body is in bad shape and it seems the deceased was brutally tortured,murdered and then skinned. He must have died a painful death,’’ the morgue attendant added.
Still fresh
Another source at General Kago Funeral Home told the Nation that the body was still fresh when it was booked by police officers from Thika East.
This implies that the victim may have been killed on Sunday night.
Police say people who positively identified Mr Githae at the scene said he had reported to work on Saturday and later retired to his house that is not very far from where he worked.
In a separate incident, police are investigating the death of a man who was found dead outside his car in Thika under unclear circumstances.
The body of Mr John Gacheru, 46, was moved to General Kago Funeral Home.
A source at the morgue told the Nation that the family of the deceased wants to have a post-mortem examination done on the body tomorrow to ascertain how he met his death.
One suspect has been arrested in connection with Mr Gacheru’s death. BY DAILY NATION