Detectives probing possible murder of Nakuru KWS officer
Crime and Justice
By
Fred Kagonye
| Jun 26, 2026
Homicide detectives have commenced a murder probe into the death of a Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) officer after an autopsy revealed he might have been killed.
At first, police officers who collected Corporal Leonard Ochieng Odero’s body from the Honeymoon Camp within Nakuru National Park ruled his death as suicide.
The post mortem on the body of the deceased was conducted at the Umash Funeral Home, Nakuru by government pathologist Dr Titus Ngulungu.
In his findings, Dr Ngulungu concluded that Odero died from excessive bleeding caused by three fatal gunshot wounds.
One of the bullets entered on the rear of the skull and exited through the mouth shattering his jaws, while the second bullet entered on the left back rib cage and exited at left chest.
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The third bullet hit his left shoulder from the front and exited at the back where it shattered his upper left arm.
The pathologist ruled out the possibility of a suicide as his cause of death which prompted Crime Scene Investigators to revisit the scene, cordoning it for reconstruction.
The autopsy report noted that the nature of Corporal Odero’s injuries was inconsistent with the narrative that he took his life which has now changed the course of investigations into a murder probe.
The death of the officer who had been at the park for only six weeks after he was moved from the Aberdare National Park was reported by Edwin Mwasi, the Officer in Charge of Investigations, KWS Nakuru.
The officers who got into Odero’s house reported that his body was on the floor and it had six gunshot wounds.
Beside the body was his riffle a CZ Bren 2 with three magazines each loaded with twenty-five (25) rounds of 7.62 mm ammunition that he had been issued with.
In the report police said that Odero suffered two gunshot wounds to the head, one to the mouth/chin area, one to the chest, one to the upper left hand and to the left palm.
The officers recovered six spent cartridges in the house and found a five-page suicide note in a small book from a metallic box.
Police in their report said that the note was addressed to his wife and parents where he expressed regret for taking his life.
In the note, Odero had allegedly listed individuals he owed money and his property before listing people who should be contacted when his body is discovered which included his father, sister, wife, and brother.