Slain LGBTQ activist Edwin Kiprotich Kiptoo suffered rejection from his family long before he met his gruesome death this year.
In an interview with Ebru Tv two years ago, Kiptoo, who was popularly known as Chiloba, revealed that his only sister and paternal uncles disowned him soon after his father died in 2015.
"My sister said she did not want anything to do with me. Everyone disowned me in the family, they said I'm evil and cannot stay in that family because I would negatively influence their children," Chiloba said.
The fashion designer said their hostility towards him emanated from his love for fashion and modelling which the family considered somewhat weird for a man to pursue.
He said due to his unique sense of dressing which the family detested, he eventually chose to walk away after his sister who had taken to paying for his Education degree course at Moi University stopped doing so. He had to drop out of school
"I was in my third year almost completing my education. I started staying with friends," Chiloba said, further revealing that the friends too subjected him to stigmatisation.
"Some would come with their friends and tell them I'm homeless after being chased from home. They would even say I'm gay and other hurtful things that really affected me," he said.
Chiloba was found murdered and his body stashed in a metallic box along the Kipenyo-Kaptinga road in Kapseret on January 4.
An autopsy conducted on Wednesday by government pathologist Johansen Oduor revealed that he died from suffocation caused by socks stuffed into his mouth.
"We found that he had a piece of jeans trouser which was tied around the mouth, and around the nose," Oduor told the media after the postmortem.
Five people including his roommate Jacktone Odhiambo with whom he's believed to have had a relationship are in police custody awaiting the completion of investigations and possible arraignment for murder.
Odhiambo confessed to the police that he killed Chiloba for allegedly cheating on him. He said his co-accused helped him commit the crime.
During his interview with Ebru Tv, Chiloba said his rejection by his family pushed him into fully pursuing fashion design and modelling as a career.
"I realised that I wasn't meant for education and now I have been rejected, I don't have otherwise but only to be, to embrace that thing that I was really in love with," he said.
Chiloba said after his career took off, he at one point went back home to claim a share of his father's land but the family said he needed to get married first.
"I told my sister we are just the two of us now but since we are no longer family, give me my share of father's land. My sister was really scared of me at that time.
"Their reaction was that I should marry and have children because they could not give me land yet I have no wife. I told them I was not ready for marriage because I was following my passion," he said.
Chiloba's family has since dismissed allegations that he was gay and asked Kenyans to stop spreading such information on social media.