Residents of Gichugu in Kirinyaga County were shocked by the discovery of a man's lifeless body, which was found mutilated and dumped in Njukiine Forest.
Police, on Thursday night, found the body with the hands chopped off and the head dipped in acid.
Edward Ndiragu, Gichugu sub-county police commander, confirmed the incident, stating that police were called to the crime scene by a group of women who stumbled upon the body while fetching firewood.
“We have just learned that someone is lying in the forest, and he looks dead,” an eyewitness stated after police cordoned off the shallow depression in which the body was dumped.
Speaking to the media, Ndiragu, confirmed that the police were unable to positively identify the person at the crime scene as he lacked identification documents.
"We haven't been able to identify the body since its face was badly disfigured. The man's hands were also severed," Ndiragu stated.
Police labelled the body as John Doe after collecting evidence at the crime scene, including DNA samples.
They also ferried the body to Kerugoya County Referral Hospital pending postmortem and identification.
25 kilometres away in Thiba, another 45-year-old man was found dead, with his body dumped by the roadside.
Preliminary reports indicated that the deceased sustained neck injuries as per the account of the mortuary attendant who booked the body.
His family positively identified him after they learnt that his body was preserved at the morgue pending autopsy. The relatives had filed a missing persons report since his disappearance on Thursday last week.
Police did not clarify whether the deaths were linked together. However, they suspected that the victims were killed elsewhere before they were dumped at respective crime scenes.
Kirinyaga County tops third in hottest crime spots in Kenya, as indicated by a report released in 2021 by the National Police Service.
Meru has the highest crime index rate of 326 per 100,000 people, while West Pokot has a low record of 108.
Assaults still top the table in the most reported cases in Kenya, with the suspects' age ranging from 20 -44 years.
