According to a security officer who saw the body, Maribel Kapolon appeared to have been burnt with acid on one arm. The nine-year-old also had cuts in her thighs.

“The body was lying face down and a part of the head had no hair. One arm appeared to have been burnt,”  the officer was quoted by the Nation as saying.

The girl was kidnapped on September 6 while on her way home from school. Maribel, who had just been dropped by the school bus, was in the company of other children when an unidentified man called her to his car.

The abductors demanded a ransom of Sh500,000 after taking away the class four pupil and never communicated with the family again.

“A day before her kidnap, someone claimed to be her uncle. Another man then called her the following day and she ran towards him and we assume she knew him,” a police officer privy to the investigations was quoted by the Standard as saying.

Maribel’s lifeless body was recovered on Monday and emerging reports indicate that shortly before this, her assailants demanded a ransom in order to secure her release.

The ransom calls are believed to have been made in Kakamega and Naivasha. Detectives probing the murder are following on the leads.

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