Two 17 year old high school students have told a Kenyan High Court on how they helped to move a metal box that emitted heavy stench at the house of Jacktone Odhiambo who is the prime suspect in the murder of LGBTQ activist Edwin Kiptoo alias Chiloba.
One of the students who is also a cousin to the suspect told the court that Jacktone sent a boda boda rider who took him to Noble Breeze apartment near Chepkoilel where the suspect lived.
The cousin told the court that he found Jacktone with his wife and child and helped them to move house.
The witnesses were testifying before Justice Reuben Nyakundi at the start of the hearing of the case in which Jacktone is charged with murdering LGBTQ activist Edwin Kiptoo alias Chiloba.
They were led in giving evidence by state counsel Mark Mugun.
Lawyer Gilbert Mitullah is appearing for Chiloba family while Mathai Maina is representing the suspect.
On 2nd January 2023 the witness said he went to sleep at their Huruma home but Jacktone came in the night and slept in the same house
However outside the house the witness said he saw a Toyota fielder thought it belonged to Jacktone’s father.
On 3rd January Jacktone again asked him to get a friend so that they help him move some things from the same house at Noble Breeze.
He got a friend who is also a student and together with Jacktone they went to Noble Breeze apartment where Jacktone lived.
They boarded a toyota fielder car driven by Jacktone and when they arrived at Noble Breeze Jacktone asked the friend to help carry the metal box at the door of the house while he remained in sitting room.
The witnesed said there was unpleasant smell in the house and around the box.
He recalled that Jacktone told them that the box contained some alcohol and dirty clothes on which a dog had urinated causing the smell.
The witness said they did not open the box although it was not padlocked.
They took the metal box to the car packed outside and as they drove away there was increasing heavy stench in the car emanating from the box.
” He told us that he was taking the box to someone called Chiloba at Maili Tisa”, said the witness.
Chiloba drove the car with the box and dropped the two at Huruma Estate before proceeding with the box promising to return after an hour.
On 4th January they again went to Noble Breeze with a pick up and went to move a few more items that had remained in the house.
They took the items to their home at Huruma Estate where Jacktone’s parents lived.
The second student told the court that they later learned from the police after being arrested that the box contained the body of Chiloba.
A third witness Jean Ochieng who is a student and brother to Jacktone said he had travelled to their Siaya rural home with Jacktone’s wife and returned on January 3rd 2023.
They found Jacktone at their Huruma home near the gate and there was a white car in the compound.
He went to the house and and found some items which he was told belonged to Jacktone who had shifted from house at Chepkoilel.
On 4th they went to Jacktone’s house at Chepkoilel with a pick up to help him move some items.
Ochieng said there was heavy stench in the house and when he asked Jacktone the source of smell he told them that a rat had died on the seats.
The three witnesses said they had known Chiloba through social media pictures as a friend to Jacktone.
Twenty witnesses among them three high students, caretaker of the
building where the deceased used to stay, and a taxi driver had been
lined up to testify against the main suspect Jacktone Odhiambo.
The late Chiloba was a fourth year student at the University of
Eldoret main campus, pursuing a degree course in Apparel Fashion and
design.
The accused person, who is being held at Eldoret GK remand prison
since his arrest, has denied that he killed Chiloba between December
31, 2022 and January 3, 2023.
Odhiambo, according to the charge sheet, allegedly committed the
criminal offence at Noble Breeze apartment in Chebisas area in Moiben
sub county, Uasin Gishu County.
The slain LGBTQ activist’s body was found in a metal box along the
Kipkenyo-Kaptinga road in Kapseret sub county in Uasin Gishu County on
January 3.
An autopsy that was conducted on the body of the deceased by a
government pathologist showed that he died of asphyxiation ( lack of
oxygen).
His death attracted global interest due to the country’s stance on gay rights.
Justice Nyakundi has directed that the hearing continues on August 2nd and 3rd 2023.
