Revealed: How KRA lawyer Jared Ratemo died

KRA Lawyer Jared Ratemo was tortured, injected with an unknown substance and strangled before he died.

A post-mortem on Mr Ratemo’s body revealed that he suffered several injuries inflicted by a blunt object on his head, face and other parts of the body.

INJECTION

The report also shows that the lawyer’s genitals were crushed and his neck had injuries, suggesting that he was strangled.

Investigations have been launched on the substance injected into his body.

Specimens collected during the post-mortem have been taken to the Government Chemist for forensic toxicology.

Meanwhile, Mr Ratemo’s elder brother Henry Kissinger Mokua on Friday said the family would be meeting in Nairobi starting Friday afternoon to plan for his burial.

The body of the lawyer was discovered on Wednesday morning by motorists who alerted the police from Embakasi Station.

On Thursday, Director of Public Prosecutions Keriako Tobiko ordered the Director of Criminal Investigations Ndegwa Muhoro to urgently start investigations into the murder.

TAX ISSUES

Mr Ratemo, who was attached to the Kenya Revenue Authority in Mombasa, was found dead along Mombasa Road, Nairobi, near the junction to Jomo Kenyatta airport.

His brother Harun Mokua had earlier told the Nation that the father of three was abducted on Tuesday, days after he had travelled to Nairobi to solve undisclosed tax issues.

“His phone was switched off as early as 10am on Tuesday and for the whole day, we kept trying to contact him,” Mr Mokua said.

He said a few hours before he disappeared, Mr Ratemo was to travel back to Mombasa aboard a 9.30am flight.

It is not clear yet whether he went to his office in Ngara that morning, as he had planned.

LSK

His brother did not give much information, saying the matter was under investigations by the police.

An email notifying staff about Mr Ratemo’s death was circulated at KRA, with the HR department saying that the body was taken to Chiromo Mortuary.

“Until his death, he was serving as a supervisor in customs and Border Control Department Consol base CFS in Mombasa,” the email read in part.

The Law Society of Kenya on Thursday condemned the murder, saying the lawyer may have been killed because of the investigations he had been conducting at KRA.

“The circumstances of Ratemo’s demise point to a most foul murder at the hands of people he was familiar with,” LSK President Isaac Okero said.

PROBE

In his letter to Mr Muhoro, Mr Tobiko said he had nominated two officers – Catherine Mwaniki and Riechi Meroke— to assist in the investigations into the case.

“The DPP directs that at the conclusion of the said investigations, the inquiry file should be submitted for perusal and appropriate directions,” the letter signed by Deputy Director of Public Prosecutions Nicholas Mutuku said.

The murder of Mr Ratemo comes barely a month after the brutal killing of another lawyer, Ronald Lubya, and one year after the slaying of lawyer Willie Kimani, which sparked protests among lawyers.