Chiloba murder suspect went on a spending spree using victim's money, court told

LGBTQ activist Edwin Kiptoo and murder suspect Jackton Odhiambo. [File, Standard]

The High Court in Eldoret heard how Jackton Odhiambo, the prime suspect in the murder of LGBTQ activist Edwin Kiptoo alias Chiloba, went on a spending spree using the deceased's money immediately after his murder.

State witnesses including a data analyst, a massage therapist, a forensic expert and a government analyst testified against Odhiambo, alias Lizer before Justice Reuben Nyakundi,

The court heard that Odhiambo left the 26-year-old student’s decomposing body in his house and began squandering his (Chiloba) money.

The suspect visited various entertainment joints and hotels and even paid for massage and sex. All his transactions were done using Chiloba’s M-pesa number. Even the metallic box in which the student’s body was stashed, had been bought using his (Chiloba) money.

Corporal Jonathan Limo, a DCI data analyst seconded to Safaricom, tabled in court the call data and M-pesa statements belonging to the accused and the deceased.

Limo told the court that Chiloba received Sh123,800 on the morning of December 31, 2022, from his foster father, who had testified in court earlier.

The transactions show that later in the night, the last time Chiloba was seen alive, some money was paid to a popular club in Eldoret town and in the morning of the New Year, Sh750 was paid to a taxi operator.

Corporal Limo went through the various transactions with some showing that a woman code-named PO who also testified received Sh4,000 on January 2, 2023.

“On January 3, 2023, at around 8 am, Sh7,500 was transferred to one Obadiah Ochieng, a workshop owner who testified earlier in court saying that he received the money for a metallic box that he sold to the accused,” the court was told.

The prosecution told the court that the accused went on spending Chiloba’s money until his arrest.

PO, a massage therapist, testified that Odhiambo, was referred to her by a friend who said the client needed a massage and sexual services.

She told Justice Nyakundi that she gave her friend the green light to share with the client her cell phone number and location pin so that he could pick her up.

“Odhiambo who was in a taxi, picked me up at my house and we went to an Airbnb where I offered my services, including massage and sex and then we had a short conversation before I left. He paid me Sh4,000 via Mpesa,” PO recounted.

PO said the Mpesa name that popped up was Edwin Kiptoo, the deceased.

Another witness Jane Waya, a Government Analyst from Kisumu who conducted a toxicological analysis on samples taken from the deceased’s body said that no chemical substances were detected.

Chief Inspector Julius Irungu, a forensic expert based at the National Forensic Laboratory, DCI Headquarters who accompanied homicide investigators to the murder scene and to the mortuary where an autopsy was conducted tabled photographs which are exhibits in the case.

Odhiambo is accused of killing Chiloba, who was a fourth-year student pursuing a degree in Apparel Fashion and Design at the University of Eldoret.

He denied killing the fashionista, who is said to have been his lover, between December 31, 2022 and January 3, 2023, at Noble Breeze Apartments in Chebisaas area, Moiben sub-county, Uasin Gishu county.

The late Chiloba’s mutilated body was discovered stashed in a metallic box along the busy Kipkenyo-Kaptinga road in Kapseret sub-county, on January 3, 2023.

According to an autopsy report conducted by government pathologist Johansen Oduor at Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital Eldoret, the deceased died of asphyxiation.

The hearing of the case continues today as more witnesses including Oduor are expected to testify.