A 30-year-old man suspected of killing former Treasury official Tom Osinde was Monday remanded for almost two months at Nakuru Prison.
Julius Mogoi is suspected to have killed Osinde and dumped his body in a river.
Nakuru judge Justice Heston Nyaga ordered Mogoi, Osinde’s former employee, be remanded pending a ruling on whether he will be released on bond.
The judge said the court will rule on bond terms application after the deceased’s family file their affidavits.
Mogoi denied killing Osinde on the night of June 17 and 18, 2023, in Ngata farm, Rongai, Sub County, in Nakuru County.
Police detective Vincent Langat in an affidavit in court opposed his release on bond saying he may interfere with key witnesses, including his mother, uncle and nephew.
The affidavit said most of the exhibits were found in the possession of Mogoi’s relatives.
Prosecutor Loice Murunga said Mogoi was a flight risk adding the suspect fled Ngata and went to his ancestral home in Kisii after the murder.
“The accused person lived in Osinde’s home where he was employed but after the incident, he cannot return there,” the prosecutor said.
The prosecutor said the public was hostile to Mogoi and he may be lynched if released.
Murunga said Osinde’s family needed 14 days to file evidence proving that Mogoi was a danger if he is released on bond.
Mogoi’s lawyer Sheila Sabaya opposed the application.
The case will be mentioned on September 21
An autopsy on Osinde’s body showed he died from two blows to his head.
Further, he was twice slashed on the head, chief government Pathologist Johansen Oduor said Friday after the exercise.
The injuries damaged his brain, Oduor said.
“He doesn’t look like someone who resisted so much” Dr Oduor said after concluding the postmortem at Kisii Teaching and Referral Hospital.
His body was discovered in river Kuja on June 22, four days after he was reported missing. It was first taken to a private mortuary in Migori which could not admit it on grounds that it was unclaimed, hence it was moved to Migori Level Four Hospital.
The police are also investigating claims that there were other people believed to be Tanzanian nationals in the deceased’s house on the day of the incident.
The officers are further seeking answers on the mysterious tampering of the electricity connection in the deceased’s house.
As the murder probe intensifies detectives are seeking answers on the motive of the murder.
Osinde worked in the office of the economic secretary at the treasury.
Before he went missing, his vehicle was seen leaving his residence and being driven by a strange person.
Osinde is the brother to Ken Osinde, the former Chief of Staff in president Ruto’s office when he was the deputy president.
by: CYRUS OMBATI