A Kenyan Wildlife Service officer who was found lifeless in his house at Nakuru National Park three days ago did not take his own life, a postmortem examination has confirmed.
The discovery has now triggered a full murder investigation as authorities seek to establish what really happened to the deceased and whether other people were involved in the death.
Corporal Leonard Ochieng Odero, who was stationed at the KWS Honeymoon Camp within Nakuru National Park, was discovered dead on June 23 with what appeared to be multiple gunshot wounds to his body. At first, people believed the officer had shot himself, but pathologist Dr Titus Ngulungu's examination last Thursday has since ruled out that theory completely.
The autopsy findings revealed that Corporal Odero sustained three fatal gunshot wounds that would have been impossible for him to inflict on himself in the manner discovered.
The first bullet went through the back of his skull and came out through his mouth, shattering his jaws in the process. A second gunshot entered through his left back rib cage and exited through his left chest.
The third bullet struck his left shoulder from the front and exited through the back, shattering his upper left arm bone. Doctors concluded that the officer died from massive blood loss combined with severe injuries to his head and chest.
Before the autopsy results became public, the incident had already caused a lot of talk and confusion among people living in Nakuru. Many residents were struggling to understand how a single person could have managed to shoot himself so many times in different parts of his body.
Initial police reports had suggested the officer had multiple gunshot wounds to the head, mouth, chest, upper left arm, and left palm, which only made people more curious about what had really taken place.
Following the autopsy findings, police officers and crime scene investigators went back to the house on Thursday to look at the scene more carefully and gather more evidence. They recovered several spent bullet cartridges, the officer's service rifle, and his ammunition that had been issued to him for duty.
Investigators also found a handwritten note they believe was written by the deceased and addressed to members of his family. The note reportedly contained personal instructions, though detectives now think the overall situation surrounding the death needs to be looked at much more carefully.
Investigators have pointed out that the pattern and nature of the gunshot wounds do not match what would be expected from someone trying to hurt themselves. This discovery led them to reopen the case as a suspected murder investigation.
The crime scene has been reprocessed and carefully documented as police work to figure out exactly how the officer received these fatal wounds and whether anyone else may have been involved in what happened to him.
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