Kenyan police has launched an investigation into the death of the country’s fashion designer and LGBTQ activist Edwin Chiloba whose body was discovered dumped in a metal box in the town of Eldoret.
Police spokesperson Resila Onyango confirmed the tragic news in the statement, adding that the motive for the killing is still unknown but an investigation has been launched into the matter.
Star reported that the body of the activist was discovered by a boda boda rider who spotted a numberless vehicle dropping the metal box along the road.
He reportedly informed the area chief about the matter who then reported to the nearby police for proper investigation.
Police officers who arrived at the scene opened the metal box and found a decomposing body which they initially thought was that of a woman.
However, after some thorough looking, the officers at the scene discovered that the body was that of a man who was in a woman’s clothes, Tuko reported.
The 26-year-old had moved to Eldoret from the capital, Nairobi, in 2019 to study fashion and rights organisations in the country have linked the gruesome killing of the activist to his sexuality.
Gay sex in Kenya is punishable by up to 14 years in prison and reports indicate that more than half of LGBTQ Kenyans have been assaulted.
The body of the Eldoret-based fashion designer has been taken to the Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital awaiting post-mortem to establish the cause of death.
Last year, another member of the LGBTQ community, Sheila Lumumba was brutally murdered and a year before that, a trans-woman activist Erica Chandra and LGBTQ activist Joash Mosoti were also brutally murdered.