Esmond Bradley Martin, illegal ivory trade expert was stabbed on his neck at his Karen home on February 4 and his body discovered by his wife, Chrysee Martin at around 4pm.
Police say that the wildlife activist was either murdered or it was a burglary gone wrong.
But according to The Daily Beast, Martin could have been killed as a ploy to grab his 20 acre piece of land.
Sources say that his park-like land is one to be coveted. In fact, his neighbors tell the Daily Beast, the deceased had over the years received threats to his life over the land.
While security officers go on about a botched theft, the publication reports that right next to his home is an on-going construction of a church.
Reports indicate that Martin, a member of the Karen Lang’ata District Association (KLDA) had sought to stop the construction of the church. He apparently was very vocal about the installment of the religious facility.
The church, Seventh Day Adventist (SDA), was issued with a cease and desist letter on February 6, two days Martin’s death.
Read: ‘You Are Not Special, Just A Kenyan Moment,’ Jalang’o Tells ‘Githeri Man’
But the church is still under construction even with the directive pressing pause. On the list of those being asked to hold off on the construction is Interior CS, Fred Matiang’i and former Lands Minister, Zablon A. Mabea.
While police rule out land grabbing, neighbours who made their way to his home moments after the news of his death got out say that nothing of value was taken from his home. His phone was still on his person when his wife found him, his safe cracked but gold and money still in place.
Surprisingly, his property deed had been made away with and some cash, probably to sell the ‘theft gone wrong’ story.
Police, two weeks into the murder and still no leads apart from the departed’s cook and gardener.
His death remains unsolved alongside that of an activist who died trying to save Lake Naivasha’s ecosystem, Joan Root and a tourist killed in the Maasai Mara in 1988, Julie Ward.
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