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Photographer Jacktone Odhiambo was found guilty of killing 25-year-old Edwin Chiloba nearly two years after the activist's body was found discarded in a metal box.
The roommate and suspected partner of an LGBTQ+ activist in Kenya has been convicted of his murder.
Photographer Jacktone Odhiambo was found guilty of killing 25-year-old Edwin Kiprotich Kipruto, better known as Edwin Chiloba, nearly two years after the activist's body was found discarded in a metal box near where he attended university in January, 2023.
Chiloba was found with socks stuffed into his mouth and a piece of denim fabric covering his mouth and nose. The metal box his body was concealed in was seen being tossed from a vehicle on Kipenyo-Kaptinga road in Mokombet in the western city of Eldoret. There were also signs Chiloba was sexually assaulted before his death.
"This was not a death that was excusable, this wasn't a death that was justifiable. This was malice aforethought," Justice Reuben Nyambati Nyakundi said, via the BBC. "He was a young man whom you strangled until he lost his life at the peak of his life. You were close friends, and you should have protected his life."
Odhiambo, who was reportedly in a sexual relationship with Chiloba, has been scheduled for sentencing December 16, and potentially faces life in prison. While the sentence for murder in Kenya is death, and the country has not abolished the death penalty, capital punishment has not been used in the nation since 1987.
Same-sex sexual relations are illegal in Kenya under colonial laws from the British, and are punishable by up to 14 years in prison, though there is no available data on convictions.
The National Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission said in a statement that it is "affirmed" by the court's "landmark ruling," which it dubbed a "significant step toward justice for Edwin and all LGBTQ+ residents of Kenya, Africa, and beyond."
"Edwin Chiloba, a fondly celebrated vibrant young queer activist, budding fashion model, and beloved LGBTQ+ Kenya was subjected to unspeakable violence — an act that not only robbed him of his promising future but sent a chilling message of fear and injustice to marginalized residents of Kenya," it wrote. "This verdict marks a long-awaited moment of accountability, offering a glimmer of justice for Edwin and a reminder that no act of violence against any LGBTQ+ resident of Kenya will go unchallenged or unchecked."
