IT Head for Kenya’s Electoral Body Was Strangled, Authorities Confirm #KenyaDecides

A Kenyan election official who was found murdered earlier this week died from manual strangulation and had incision marks on his right forearm, Kenya’s chief government pathologist told CNN on Thursday.

The official, Chris Msando, was head of information technology for Kenya’s Integrated Electoral Management System. His department is responsible for voter-identification and result-transmission technology for the national elections that take place on Tuesday.

Msando had last been heard from early Saturday — when he sent a text message to a colleague.

Wafula Chebukati, chairman of the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission, expressed the voting authority’s shock at their colleague’s death on Monday, suggesting to reporters outside Nairobi’s city morgue that Msando had been tortured.

“We learned in shock, the killing and murder of our employee, Chris Msando. There’s no doubt that he was tortured and murdered,” Chebukati said.

But pathologist Johansen Odour was unable to confirm whether Msando died from torture, saying, “It could be in line with torture. Other than those marks [on the arm] there are no other marks”

He was also unable to provide more information about what object had caused the incision. The rest of the body was intact, he said, contrary to other media reports that Msando was missing an arm when he was found.

The bodies of the election official and an unidentified woman were found on the outskirts of the city on Saturday, according to The Star newspaper.

Msando’s death has raised fresh fears over Kenya’s ability to deliver credible elections.

Election observers from the nongovernmental watchdog Carter Center said in a pre-election statement that the smooth functioning of the voter-identification system was key to “preventing malpractice on election day.”