Four bodies found dumped in Lari, Kiambu

The four male bodies were discovered on Sunday morning by members of the public who called the police after the finding. [iStockphoto]

Police in Lari sub-county, Kiambu are investigating a case where four bodies were found dumped at Ngubi forest along the Nairobi-Maai Mahiu road at the weekend.

The four male bodies were discovered on Sunday morning by members of the public who called the police after the finding.

According to the police the four male persons were murdered elsewhere and dumped in the vast forest.

Lari officer commanding police division Adamson Furaha said that the bodies looked fresh and bore strangulation marks around the neck and further injuries on their private parts.

The finding of the three bodies brings the number of dumped bodies in the forest to four. Over the weekend, the police had picked one body along the same route.

The four bodies were taken to the City Mortuary awaiting postmortem and identification by relatives.

The police boss is worried about the trend of dumping bodies around the area as he said that a week hardly passes without them collecting a body.

“It is a worrying trend here, if we don’t pick one body in a week we pick two in as much as there are days when we do not get reports of this dumping,” Furaha said.

Furaha added that police have intensified patrol in the area although they face the challenge of manning the whole area owing to its vastness.

“25 per cent of Lari constituency is covered by forest with a lot of entries, the forest spans from Ngubi to Kijabe and to Lari. It is thick and the forest can be accessed from Nakuru Nairobi highway, Ngubi area, Maai Mahiu and Limuru...manning these entries and many other unknown entries is a serious task but we are trying,” Furaha said.

The police boss further said that there is also a possibility that the criminals study security movement and dash to where our officers are not manning because they get such reports after a night of a well-coordinated patrol.

Furaha said they are often notified of dead bodies dumped in the forest by members of the public who enter the forest in search of firewood and also those who traverse the forest to connect to their villages from the main Nakuru-Nairobi highway.

“We have not heard of a body that belonged to any local person here. All of them happen to be killed elsewhere and dumped here, we are keen on these in a bid to arrest the transporters of these bodies with a view to breaking these incidences,” Furaha said

He noted that a few families had planned to visit the City Mortuary to identify the bodies today.

On October 26, 2021, at the same place, the body of The Standard veteran science journalist Gatonye Gathura was found dumped. The body was taken to the Naivasha morgue and booked as an identified male.

Gathura's body also bore marks of strangulation. Police said Gathura might have been strangled as a copper wire was found around his neck.