Dead Italian tourist identified in Malindi


Renato Bettini Italian

The Italian community in Malindi has revealed the identity of a foreign national whose corpse was discovered on the banks of River Sabaki.

The deceased has been identified as Renato Bettini, an Italian  tourist aged 65  from Milan. He was a regular visitor to Malindi who arrived six months ago and was preparing to return to his country.

The corpse was discovered in a hippo infested thicket at Moi village in Malindi Sub County, Kilifi County by fishermen who were on a fishing expedition at 5.00 am on Sunday.

Image result for Moi village in Malindi

Bettini, according to the Italian community members who requested anonymity, is said to be a running enthusiast who used to jog every morning and  evening along the beaches in Malindi.

“He could jog every morning either along the beach from Kiwi residence to where the Sabaki River meets the ocean or along the Malindi- Lamu road towards the Sabaki Bridge,” said an Italian national living in Malindi.

The body had deep wounds suspected to have been as a result of having been knifed or having been stumbled upon by the hippos.

Image result for hippos


Police officers from Malindi and Magarini Sub Counties visited the scene of the crime and picked the body that was ferried to a local mortuary. An autopsy to determine cause of death has not been done.

Malindi Director of Criminal Investigations Officer (DCIO) Anthony Sunguti said that his office had received a name from the Italian community and that he will issue a statement once the family of the deceased identifies him.

“We shall issue a statement the moment the family positively identifies its kin but of now we only have a name suggestion,” he said.

Moi village elder Safari Kadenge said that the body of the foreigner was found floating on the waters of the massive river meters away from the Indian Ocean.

Related image


He added that the body had deep wounds but the cause of death could not be ascertained since the area he was discovered had marks of hippopotamus hooves.

“We can’t state clearly what might have been the cause of death but we have three options whereby we suspect that the body might have been ferried to that location or the tourist was killed by either a hippopotamus or a crocodile,” he said.

He also said that the area has had a series of insecurity issues and that bodies of  people killed elsewhere had been dumped in the area.

“There is this forest here and criminals take advantage of it to as a dumping site of their criminal activities and we want to call on the security agencies to reinforce security in the area,” he said.

The identity of the deceased was being followed closely by the Kenyan government and various foreign embassies in Kenya.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *