(KAKAMEGA, KENYA) – A murder case in Kenya has shown how a photograph posted on social media helped investigators identify a suspect, leading to a 40 year prison sentence. The case carries lessons for South Sudan, where police face similar challenges in handling digital evidence.
The victim, a Form Four student identified in court records as CMM, was born out of wedlock and raised by her grandmother. Her aunt, who lived in Nairobi, paid her school fees.
On 4th October 2021, CMM left her aunt’s home in Nairobi for her grandmother’s home in Mumias, Kakamega County in western Kenya.
She carried a black bag with gifts from her aunt for her grandmother: 6kg of Kabras sugar and two packets of Fahari tea leaves.
The bag also held three schoolbooks and a Lenovo tablet, which she used as a mobile phone.
By 7pm, CMM’s uncle, David Wanga, was waiting for her at Shianda market in Mumias, where she was expected to get off an Eldoret Express bus. The bus had not arrived, and CMM was already several hours late.
At about 9.30pm, David’s phone rang. It was CMM. She was crying. She told him she did not know exactly where she was, but believed she was somewhere in Butere.
David rushed to Butere to search for his niece. He could not find her and returned home to alert the family.
Then another clue emerged.
David’s brother, Ernest, received a call from CMM’s cousin, Maureen. She had noticed a photograph of an unfamiliar man on CMM’s Facebook page.
At around 10pm, the aunt who had seen CMM off in Nairobi sent her a message asking if she was safe.
About an hour later, a reply came from CMM’s phone saying she was safe. It was the last message the family received. The phone was then switched off.
Three days later, on the morning of 7th October, David reported CMM missing at Butere Police Station.
But he was already searching on his own.
He went to the main boda boda stage at Shianda market and showed riders the photograph of the unfamiliar man from CMM’s Facebook account, asking whether anyone recognised him.
Several riders did. They identified the man as John Inzofu Odinga.
The riders and David went to Odinga’s home, but he was not there. They eventually tracked him down at Muraka market and made a citizen’s arrest.
As they escorted him towards Butere Police Station, Odinga tried to escape. He was caught, and the riders tied his hands and legs with ropes.
By then, officers from the Directorate of Criminal Investigations had been alerted. They met the group and took Odinga into custody.
The investigators later went with him to his home and searched the premises.
Near Odinga’s bed, they found a black bag. Inside were 6kg of sugar, two packets of tea leaves, CMM’s three schoolbooks and her Lenovo tablet.
The belongings had been found. But CMM was nowhere to be seen.
Then came the discovery that turned the missing person case into a murder investigation.
A security guard walking along a riverbank noticed a black polythene bag floating in the water. Curious, he pulled it from the river. Inside was CMM’s body.
A postmortem examination found that she had been strangled and that her neck had been broken. Pathologists also found bruising to her private parts.
In court, Odinga denied involvement and said he had been framed by police. He claimed officers had taken his photograph and uploaded it to CMM’s Facebook account to implicate him.
The judge rejected that explanation. The court found that the Facebook update containing Odinga’s photograph had been made before police became involved in the case, and even before CMM’s family reported her missing.
The photograph could not have been planted by police as Odinga claimed. The judge sentenced him to 40 years in prison.
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