Shocked residents of Kiamunyi in Nakuru gaze at a lifeless body of a 22-year-old Mt Kenya University Student who was found dead in a maize plantation. The deceased was also raped according to police who have so far launched investigations into the murder.
Detectives are piecing together information that would help unravel the suspected murder of a Mount Kenya University student, whose body was found in a maize plantation in the Kiamunyi area in Nakuru County.
The body of Vivian Kajaya, 22, who was pursuing a Bachelor's degree in Social Work and Administration, was on Monday found dumped in a maize plantation by residents.
Her identification card shows she hails from Ainamoi in Nandi County.
It is not clear why she had travelled to Nakuru and where she was heading when she met her death.
Police say preliminary investigations indicated that there was a struggle between the deceased and her attackers.
On Tuesday, investigators were trying to establish the victim's movements and the people she last had communicated with to help unravel the circumstances surrounding the murder.
Detectives also want to establish the motive behind the killing, as they battle to bring her killers to book.
Only a handbag containing her identification documents was found a few metres from the body.
The student's phone remains missing and is believed to hold important information that could aid the ongoing investigations into her death.
According to Rongai sub-County Directorate of Criminal Investigations boss, Donnata Otieno, detectives are following crucial leads, including the people the deceased interacted with before her lifeless body was found in the maize plantation.
"We are tracing her last movements and conversations to find out what transpired before her death. We will not rest until her assailants are apprehended and arraigned," she said.
"Her underwear had been removed and left beside the body. It is evident she was trying to defend herself but was overpowered by her assailants.”
Rongai sub-County police commander Cecilia Kemboi revealed that she received a phone call from the area chief that the body of a woman had been discovered.
“Preliminary investigations indicate it is a murder. The body has been moved to Nakuru City mortuary awaiting postmortem,” said Ms Kemboi.
Brighton Roman, a resident of Kiamunyi, said he was passing by the farm coming from town heading home when he spotted the body, alerted the community and later the police.
Mr Roman said that he thought the woman had decided to take a nap after tending to her farm, but realised she was dead.
“At first, l thought she was resting after working on the farm, but when I moved closer, l realised she was dead. Together with other people, we moved closer and tried waking her up, but there was no response, the herder informed us that he had spotted a bag that had been hanging on a tree a few meters from the scene. He thought that it belonged to someone on the farm,” said Mr Roman.
According to Mr Joseph Keago, another resident of Kiamunyi, the documents showed that she schools at Mount Kenya University's main campus in Thika.
He said that they also found a bus receipt showing that she boarded a 2NK matatu from Thika to Nakuru between 5pm and Saturday evening.
This, according to investigators, means she must have been killed between Saturday night and Sunday.
At the time it was recovered, the body was still fresh, further indicating the murder happened last weekend.
On Tuesday, police were still making attempts to reach her family in Nandi.
