“We saw a green sack wash up near us when we were fishing in lake Nakuru on Monday, February 10. Although we are used to seeing waste floating in the water, this one looked different,” James Kyalo begins.

Kyalo, whose identity is being protected for safety reasons, was among four fishermen who found an unidentified body in lake Nakuru.

“We had gone fishing last week, and as is the custom, we paid our usual Sh. 3,000 bribe to some officers before entering the lake. It was around seven o'clock in the morning,” Kyalo recalls.

“A few minutes into the fishing, we saw this green sack. When we got closer to it to pull it out with the fishing net, the sack felt heavy.”

He continues, “When my friends and I grabbed it, one of them gasped, isn't that a human foot? I told him, No, let me check. When I looked closely, I was shocked. The sack was tied with a rope on one end with the foot sticking out. The sack was stinking and the foot was white as if it had been soaked in the lake for a while”

Kyalo says one of his friends lightly said the body could be that of Brian Odhiambo, the 31-year-old who went missing a month ago after allegedly being arrested by KWS officers.

It was this realisation that sparked their curiosity, causing them to want to find out more about the body.

As he and his friends were trying to pull the sack out of the water, Kyalo says a boat with two officers showed up.

Seeing the four reaching for the sack, the officers shot their guns up in the air forcing them to scamper for safety.

Kyalo further reveals, “The officers picked the body and put it in their boat. We were forced to leave because they fired continuous shots in the water.”

“When we left, we wondered whether to share what we’d just encountered, but decided to hold off assuming the body would be taken to the morgue and that if it was Brian’s, then the family would be informed.”

Kyalo says that when he realised Brian’s family had not been contacted concerning the body, he decided to share his discovery with the family.

Carlos Otieno, Brian Odhiambo's brother speaks to Mtaa Wangu on February 18, 2025.

Photo credit: LELETI JASSOR/MTAA WANGU

“I met Carlos, Brian’s brother, on Friday and told him what we had seen. He asked me to go home with him and share the news with his mum too. I did that the following day on Saturday,” he says.

After hearing this, Elizabeth Auma, Brian’s mother was prompted to make a phone call at the Kwa Jack morgue to find out if a body had been received at the facility in the past week, to no avail.

Elizabeth Auma, Brian Odhiambo's mother speaks to Mtaa Wangu on February 18, 2025.

Photo credit: LELETI JASSOR/MTAA WANGU

“On January 18, I was in church when I later got information that the OCS Bondeni police station together with a large team of police officers were here at my home looking for my other son, Carlos, giving a warning that he needed to cool down and for him to know that the police are looking for him,” Ms Auma says.

“They already took one of my sons and now they had come for the other. If I was at home, I don’t know what they would have done to me. They’d have killed me first though before taking my son,” Auma says daringly.

“If anything happens to me or Carlos, blame Bondeni OCS.”

Carlos Otieno, Brian’s brother, revealed to Mtaa Wangu that he suspects the Police are after him because they suspect he is behind the protests witnessed in Kivumbini, condemning the alleged abduction of Brian Odhiambo.

“I could not have organized the protests as accused by the police because I was in the village when the protests happened for a week. All we want is for whoever has Brian to bring him back to us,” he concludes.

Four fishermen find body in Lake Nakuru, Brian Odhiambo's family face threats

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Leleti Jassor