Missing teacher found dead in suspected poaching deal gone sour
Police in Baringo County are investigating the death of a primary school teacher who went missing for days only for his decomposed body to be discovered in a bush, many kilometres away.
On Saturday, October 29, Luka Kiplagat, 52, who was a teacher at Kaplelwo in Mogotio sub-county, left his home in Kabarbesi village and told his relatives that he was heading to Nakuru for some errands and would be back the following day.
With a bag on his back, he boarded a vehicle at Emining shopping centre. It was the last time his family heard from him or saw him alive.A family member said the mobile phone of the father of five went off on Sunday, a day after he left home.
The family suspected the phone had run out of power and waited to see him on Monday, when he was to return home.
The teacher usually stayed home on weekends. He was a tutor at a school in a remote village more than 20km away from his home.
A colleague at the school later told the family Mr Kiplagat had asked him to cover a class for him if he did not return by Monday, said Vincent Kiptoo, a relative.
The family reported his disappearance at the Emining police station after failing to locate him and a follow-up report at the Mogotio police station 3 days later.
At the Mogotio station, they learnt about a man from Tiaty constituency who had been arrested while in possession of an elephant tusk, armed with an AK-47 rifle and was being held at the Kabarnet police station. His accomplice had been killed while another escaped and was still at large.
A WhatsApp group of more than 500 professionals and locals was created to help with the search for the missing teacher.
Days later, relatives learnt about the body of a teacher found in the far-flung Nasur village in Tiaty East on the borders of Baringo, Laikipia and Samburu counties. The body was riddled with bullets.Amaya Assistant Chief David Lomantile travelled to the area to help identify the body.
The family then arranged to transport the body to the morgue.
“The chief sent us the photos of the decomposing body of a man, and it seemed he had been murdered days earlier and we recognised it as belonging to our relative because of the jacket he wore before he left, though his trousers and shoes had been removed,” Mr Kiptoo said.
Mr Lomantile said locals who saw the body reported that they had seen the teacher with two other locals on October 30 at a nearby shopping centre and that the tutor was their visitor.
The body had been mauled by wild animals and only a few bones remained.Daniel Munguti, a detective from Tiaty constituency, confirmed that only a few bones were found at the scene in the bush.
We have arrested one suspect, who is reported to have been [with the teacher] and we found him with an elephant tusk and a gun, but the other accomplice is still at large.
The suspect in police custody claims the teacher was shot dead by the missing accomplice after they disagreed on a deal, detectives said.
