Kakamega: Boda boda operator arrested, after uploading his photo on Facebook account of murdered High School girl

By , K24 Digital
On Tue, 12 Oct, 2021 16:34 | 2 mins read
Kakamega: Boda Boda operator arrested, after uploading his photo on Facebook account of murdered high school girl
A boda boda rider. PHOTO | FILE
Kakamega: Boda Boda operator arrested, after uploading his photo on Facebook account of murdered high school girl

A bodaboda rider was on Tuesday, October 12 arrested after he uploaded his photo on the Facebook page of a girl who was found dead a week ago.

John Odinga, a resident of Emenyasa is said to have uploaded the photo of the deceased Cynthia Makokha’s official Facebook account when using her phone.

The student aged 17 was a Form Four student at Kibera High School in Nairobi County and was heading to her rural home for the burial of her mother when she met her death.

She had on October 4, travelled from Nairobi to her rural home but never arrived at her grandmother’s place.

It has now emerged that the minor boarded the suspect’s motorcycle at Shianda market in Kakamega County.

“However, she never arrived home after boarding the motorbike at Shianda market and efforts of tracing her bore no fruits,” her father Chrispinus Makanga who was accompanied by his wife Florence Wanga told K24 Digital.

He further said that the girl made a call to her parents at 7 pm saying that she had boarded a motorbike but she never arrived home.

“We tried to call her when we realised that she was taking longer than usual when we tried to reach her, we found that her phone had been switched off,” Makanga further said.

The search for the minor bore no fruits until the suspect went ahead and uploaded his photo on the girl’s Facebook account.

This prompted the girl's parents to make a formal report to the police which made it easy for authorities to track down the bodaboda rider.

Her body was on Monday, October 11, discovered floating in River Lusumu by locals who reported the matter at Mumias Police Station.

Speaking to the media, Michael Omwanda who is the Shianda bodaboda chairman further accused the suspect of being a criminal involved in child kidnapping and robbery incidents.

Asked what prompted him to make such an accusation, Omwanda said that the suspect was once nabbed by the police for stealing and trafficking two children to Busia but was later released.

“He had the intention of selling the two children but the plan hit the wall when he was nabbed by locals,” the Boda Boda chairman said.

The body of the minor is currently at the Kakamega General and Referral Hospital mortuary awaiting a postmortem.

Bumini acting chief Winstone Shirebo told the media that police were still grilling the suspect and he will be arraigned on Wednesday, October 13.

“Police are still investigating the matter and the suspect will be arraigned before the end of the week,” said Shirebo.