- Msando’s body was found in a thicket within Muguga Forest in Kikuyu on Saturday, July 29, 2017 a day after he went missing.
- Msando’s body was identifieds on the same day he was to oversee the public testing of the voting system, which he had termed as tamper-proof.
Image: FILE
Today marks exactly seven years since electoral commission IT manager Chris Msando was found dead days after he went missing.
Msando’s body was found in a thicket within Muguga Forest in Kikuyu on Saturday, July 29, 2017, a day after he went missing.
Also found at the scene were the remains of a lady, 21-year-old Carol Ngumbu.
But it wasn’t until Monday, July 31, 2017, that Msando’s body was positively identified at the Nairobi Funeral Home (formerly City Mortuary).
Autopsy results showed that the slain IEBC ICT manager was tortured and strangled by his killers who are yet to be identified almost a decade later.
Former IEBC commissioner Roselyn Akombe on Wednesday shared an emotional message to mark the seventh anniversary of Msando’s death and expressed optimism that his killers will not walk free forever.
“Seven years ago, they strangled you and your body mysteriously appeared at City Mortuary. Your body on that cold slab and the cries of your distraught wife asking why we killed you will forever ring in my mind,” Akombe said in a post on X.
“Those who murdered you continue to roam free, but not for too long. Continue resting in power our electoral justice Shujaa."
Msando’s body was identified on the same day he was to oversee the public testing of the voting system, which he had termed as tamper-proof and key to eliminating vote rigging.
The IT guru had days before said during a TV interview that the Kenya Integrated Electoral Management System (KIEMS) would be used to identify voters and transmit results without human interference.
The anticipated demonstration of the KIEMS had been touted by the IEBC as the answer to election malpractices and commitment to deliver credible 2017 elections.
A similar electronic system used in the 2013 election failed leading to uproar and manual counting of votes which many believed gave room for voter manipulation.
While mourning Msando’s death on the day his body was identified, the then IEBC chairman Wafula Chebukati asked a question many still ask to date.
"In our mind as a commission, the only issue is who killed him and why, and that is the question that must be answered."
Msando’s body was found stripped to the underwear and there were claims a finger was missing.
“He died from strangulation and he also had incisions on his right arm, but the rest of the body was intact,” chief government pathologist Johansen Oduor said after conducting the postmortem at the lee Funeral Home, Nairobi on August 2, 2017.
The United States and the UK condemned the murder and in a joint statement offered to assist in the investigations.