Investigative authorities have ruled out murder in the mysterious death of Geoffrey Gitobu, an Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) returning officer posted in Gichugu Constituency, Kirinyaga County.
The 57-year-old officer died on Monday, August 22, at around 2 pm.
Kirinyaga County IEBC manager Jane Gitonga announced his death saying Gitobu was visiting the Nanyuki IEBC offices after taking a short break to see his family in Nanyuki.
He then collapsed and was rushed to Cottage Hospital Nanyuki, where he was pronounced dead.
Gitobu’s death sparked fears and rumours that he might have been killed owing to his job as an elections officer.
But Laikipia County DCI boss Onesmus Towett allayed these fears saying preliminary investigations showed Gitobu suffered a sudden death.
“We have received a report that an IEBC officer was murdered or killed in Nanyuki. That is not the position.
“Somebody collapsed in town, he was rushed to hospital and at the hospital, he was confirmed that he was dead,” Towett said in a TV interview.
He added: “So, no person has killed another one and no person has been brought here for killing another one.”
A postmortem is scheduled for today to establish the exact cause of death.
“We are investigating the cause of that death. We have opened an inquiry, the postmortem will be done tomorrow at 9 am. For now, it’s sudden death and we take it like that as sudden death,” Towett said.
Notably, Gitobu allowed the re-tallying of Kirinyaga gubernatorial results in Gichugu constituency on August 10 following a stalemate over rigging allegations.
