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Police in Eldoret are looking for a middle-aged man believed to be behind the murder of a commercial sex worker in a makeshift lodging at Tairi Mbili area along the busy Eldoret-Webuye highway. The woman’s body was found in a house that she had rented to host her guest for the night.

“My friend entered her house with a client at around 3am. I suspected something was wrong when I realised that the door to her house was open. I decided to enter the house and I was shocked to find her naked body with blood oozing from the mouth,” stated the woman who identified herself as Nancy Maria, a neighbour to the deceased.

She alerted her neighbours about the incident and together they decided to report the matter at Baharini police station. A team of police officers and Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) officers from the station visited the scene and took the body to Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital Mortuary as investigations commenced.

Similar incidents

Confirming the incident, Uasin Gishu County police commander Stephen Okal said the motive of the murder is yet to be established. He said they are looking for the prime suspect and assured that investigations are already going on.

The murder has sparked an uproar from civil society groups in Eldoret, which fight for the rights of commercial sex workers claiming that similar murders are on the increase in the region.

“This is not the first incident of this nature, in less than four months about three women have been killed in a similar manner, as we speak now two of our clients are in mortuary after they were killed in a similar manner,” said Ruth Kakenya, an activist advocating for the rights of commercial sex workers in Eldoret.

Ms Kakenya urged police to speed up investigations into the murder incidents to enable the victims to get justice.

According to Kenya Sex Workers Alliance, 10 sex workers are killed every month. Grace Njoroge the chairperson of the Alliance said that the majority of the sex workers are killed by their clients who turn against them.