‘I transported corpse without my knowledge’

At around 7.30pm on December 7, 2018, Albert Muchorwa was headed for his Hamisi home in Vihiga Sub-County on his motorcycle after closing his business for the day.

He met his neighbour Francis Lusava Muhitsi who asked him to help ferry some firewood meant to prepare chang’aa.

Muchorwa agreed and loaded the firewood covered in a gunny bag and headed for Kaimosi, a nearby shopping centre.

At a thicket, he was ordered to stop the motorcycle where his passenger offloaded the luggage.

He was paid for his services and left, only to learn in the morning that he was carrying a corpse of a woman allegedly murdered by her husband.

When Muchorwa returned to the scene the following day, he found the firewood at the same spot with a body whose nose, lips and ears had been chopped off. The eyes were gouged out.

Muchorwa was testifying in a case where Lusava is accused of killing Ruth Khacheya Ngaira.

Micah Ngaira, the father to the deceased, told the court that his daughter had gone missing for a week prior to the discovery of her lifeless body.

He told the court that two weeks before the incident, Ruth had returned from home with injury marks. She said she had been assaulted by Lusava with whom she was cohabiting and who had threated to kill her making her run away to her parent’s home.

Her mother had urged her not to return to Lusava for the fear that her life would be greatly in danger.

However, on December 1, Ruth is said to have told her mother that she was visiting a friend at a nearby village but would return in the evening, which she never did.

Calls to her phone went unanswered but when the concerned mother called Lusava, he picked up the call, exchanged greetings and disconnected.

Subsequent calls went unanswered.

Ngaira told the court that he was called by his son on December 8 and informed there were rumours there was a body which resembled that of his daughter.

“I rushed to the scene and confirmed that indeed she was my daughter. She looked like she had been burnt with acid and her lips, ears and nose cut off. Her eyes had been gorged out so we reported the matter to the police,” said the father.

Lusava was arrested later that day where police recovered blood-stained axe, firewood while Ruth’s phone was discovered in his house.

Police also recovered clothes belonging to the deceased in a pit latrine within Lusava’s compound.

Post mortem tests carried out at Mbale Sub- County Hospital revealed that the cause of Ruth’s death was physical strangulation with evidence of substance like acid being poured on her.

The case resumes on December 9.