- The deceased's body was discovered at Machakos Level 5 hospital mortuary on September 4.
- Athi River South Subcounty police commander Philis Muthoni confirmed that he died in a grisly road accident.
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The driver whose car allegedly hit and killed Treasury procurement intern Evans Chirchir has been released on Sh50,000 police cash bail, the Star has learned.
A police source told the Star that the suspect was released on Thursday.
He said the suspect is expected to avail himself at Kyumbi Police Station in a fortnight.
He will be arraigned once investigations into the incident are complete.
The officer privy to the case said this is to allow DCI to complete their investigations into the incident within two weeks.
New revelations surrounding the 34-year-old man's death have emerged with reports that he was in the company of friends when he died in a road accident along the Nairobi - Mombasa road at Kyumbi area.
On the same day, his body was picked by cops and moved to Machakos Level 5 Hospital mortuary on August 31 at 9.20 pm.
Police said one of the deceased's neighbours had allegedly invited him to an undisclosed event in Makueni County from his rented house in Athi River before he went missing.
"The deceased's friend and neighbour who has already been identified on August 30 called and talked with him outside his house in Athi River. He reportedly after the conversation left for the said venue in Makueni County," the source said.
The deceased is said to have left his mobile phone in his house charging when he left but never returned home.
"The following morning, a relative called the deceased's friend whom he had left his house in the company of the previous day but he never picked the call," the source said.
He said the friend later called the relative informing him that they had previous day gone to Makueni.
"The friend called saying 'I went to Makueni with your .....and while on our way back, we got somewhere to take eat."
It's not clear the point at which Chirchir was crushed to death by the motor vehicle.
The incident was reported to the Kyumbi Police Station in Athi River South Subcounty on August 31 as a fatal traffic accident incident report.
The vehicle is said to have been inspected at the station and released.
The deceased's body was discovered at Machakos Level 5 hospital mortuary on September 4.
Athi River South Subcounty police commander Philis Muthoni confirmed that he died in a grisly road accident.
Muthoni said Chirchir was hit by a motor vehicle and died on the spot along the highway in the Kyumbi area within Machakos County on August 31, 2024.
The same day police found his body and removed it to Machakos Level 5 hospital mortuary, where his relatives identified it on Wednesday.
A postmortem was done on the body at Machakos Funeral Home where it had been transferred to on Thursday.
“The man died on the spot after he was knocked down by a hit-and-run motor vehicle. This was revealed after our officers revisited the scene of the incident and collected debris that helped in forensic investigations,” Muthoni exclusively told the Star on Thursday.
The police boss said debris from the motor vehicle’s window with its number plate was among what was collected by the officers from the scene, leading to the successful identification of the motor vehicle involved, its owner, and the person who was on the wheel when the incident occurred.
She said the person, a male adult, who was driving the vehicle when the accident occurred had been arrested and would be arraigned in court to face relevant charges.
The driver never reported the incident to any police station until Thursday when he was nabbed by the DCI officers.
“The car’s registration number plate on the windows’ debris was sent to the National Transport and Safety Authority, whose officers, in collaboration with the DCI detectives, found the owner," Muthoni said.
"The man who was positively identified to be the one who was driving the car when it caused the accident was arrested, and the motor vehicle was impounded at Kyumbi police station."
She said an inspection had been done on the motor vehicle as the suspect confessed to knocking down 'something’ on the night when the incident occurred.
Muthoni said the body was discovered shortly after it was knocked down.
“The suspect has never reported the incident to any police station since he got involved in the accident. He has, however, confessed that he was aware he had hit something, but didn’t know what it was. The Treasury employee was knocked down and died on the spot the same day his body was collected from the road,” Muthoni said.
Machakos Level 5 hospital's medical superintendent, Dr Daniel Katua, earlier confirmed that the body was taken to the facility’s mortuary by officers from Kyumbi police station and booked it on August 31, 2024, at 9.20 pm.
Katua said the officers positively identified the body as per the details he got from the mortuary attendants.
"As we speak, the family has gotten permission from Kyumbi police station to transfer the body to a place of their choice, allegedly a private mortuary," Katua told reporters at his office in Machakos Level 5 hospital on Wednesday.
Katua, however, declined to divulge details on the body, citing privacy reasons.
He told the reporters to reach out to the family for more details.
He said the deceased's relatives had earlier gone to pick up the body from the mortuary for transfer but were told to go get permission to do so from Kyumbi police station.
"A postmortem examination was scheduled to be conducted on the body at this facility today. The family, however, instead placed a request for them to have it transferred. When they came here, we told them to come with the police," Katua said.