The digging up of issues related to the death of Mr. Daniel Mbolu Musyoka, the slain Embakasi East Returning Officer whose body was discovered dumped at Kilombero Forest in Oloitoktok on August 15, has taken an unexpected turn after police tracked down his phone to four suspects.

Reports show four people who have used Mr. Musyoka's phone since his murder are being held at Embakasi Police Station to assist the police with their investigations.

The four were lured by detectives, according to those familiar with the investigation, before being caught in Nairobi.

The four are accused of selling the device to a woman, who has been using it since the IEBC official went missing. Detectives had been looking for the device's location ever since they realized it was being used.

Lured

After catching the woman, the detectives first tricked the four suspects into coming to a busy area. It's been about a month since the woman allegedly started using the phone. The woman was then urged to contact the person who had sold it to her.

When the man who handed her the device was asked where he got it, he explained that he was given it by a man he knew well.

The detective said that while tracing the phone's ownership since Mr. Musyoka's death, the first person who picked it up reported collecting it somewhere in Nairobi's Umoja estate. Police are still investigating how the phone came to be in use.

His mobile phone went off an hour after his disappearance in Mihang'o, Utawala, according to police.

The four suspects were held in custody on Tuesday night before being arraigned in Makadara Law Courts on Wednesday morning.

He vanished without a trace.

Mr. Musyoka was reported missing for the first time publicly by IEBC chair Wafula Chebukati on Friday, August 12, just three days after Kenyans voted in the General Election. Mr. Chebukati made the announcement during the Presidential election results verification process at the Bomas of Kenya.

Mr. Musyoka went missing on Thursday at 9 a.m. at the city's East Africa School of Aviation, where presidential election results from the Embakasi East constituency were being tallied, according to the IEBC chair. According to Mr. Chebukati, he left his house and was escorted to the tallying center by his official bodyguard.

Witnesses say he excused himself from the tallying center around 9.40 a.m. to take a phone call before going missing. He was last seen leaving the tallying center and making his way to a nearby bus stop.

He was about to declare the results of the Embakasi East National Assembly and County Assembly elections. After he vanished, his deputy took over and announced the outcomes.

A few days passed before his body was discovered by herders in Kilombero forest, at the foot of Mt. Kilimanjaro, early on Monday, August 15. The body was naked, but a tracksuit and a Maasai shuka were nearby. The body had fresh bruises on the neck, implying strangulation. The lower limbs were swollen, but no visible injuries were present.

kept in confinement

Shadrack Kiprop Rutto, the commander of the Loitokitok Police, stated that Musyoka was recently killed because the body appeared to be fresh. Mr. Musyoka was likely kept in captivity before being murdered, according to police, because his body had not decomposed and was still intact despite being found in an animal corridor in the forest.

"We believe the deceased was held by his tormentors for a few days after his disappearance before being killed." "If the body had been dumped on the day he went missing, it would have decomposed or been devoured by wild animals," Mr. Kiprop explained.

A group of five pathologists performed a post-mortem examination but were unable to identify the precise cause of death. They declared that they could not pinpoint the precise cause of death and that samples would be sent to a government lab for additional forensic examination. Government pathologist Dr. Dorothy Njeru informed Mr. Musyoka's family members outside the morgue that the murder was "professional" and that no one had been hurt physically. She stated that most of his internal organs were still functional.

A source close to the investigation told the Nation at the time that officers were looking for the identity of the mysterious caller who reached out to Mr. Musyoka before he vanished.

He was terrified for his life.

Mr. Musyoka had told a close family member two days before he went missing that he feared for his life.

On Saturday, his cousin, Mr. Nicholas Musyoka, told journalists that he had communicated with the deceased, who informed him that all was not well and that he was planning to go into hiding.

"When I last spoke with him, he expressed fear for his life and stated that he needed to go somewhere." "I figured things weren't going well for him," he explained.

On August 26, Mr. Chebukati, IEBC CEO Marjan Hussein, and commissioners Abdi Guliye and Bolu Moya attended his burial ceremony in Machakos.

Mr. Musyoka's wife, Tabitha Mbolu, and two children, Prudence and Isaac, survive him.