Tortured, Silenced and Dumped: The Savage Murder of Kisumu Photographer Joe Miles

Joseph Owino Jonny was not a man who chased fame. He chased light. From the shores of Lake Victoria to the dusty roads threading through Nyakach Constituency, the young photographer and videographer known to everyone as Joe Miles built a quiet reputation doing what he loved: pointing a camera at life and making it matter. That life was taken from him in circumstances that have left his family, friends and Kenya’s creative fraternity not merely grieving, but demanding answers.

On Tuesday, March 3, Joe received a call from someone claiming to need photography services.

For a freelance cameraman in his mid-20s, such calls are the lifeblood of the trade.

He left home without suspicion, equipment in hand, heading towards what he believed was another routine job. Hours passed. His phone went silent. By the time the people who loved him realised something was wrong, Joe Miles was already dead.

BODY FOUND IN A THICKET

His lifeless body was discovered in a thicket in Naivasha, a town roughly four hundred kilometres from Kisumu, sending shockwaves through the lakeside city and the wider Kenyan media fraternity. But it was not the distance that disturbed those who saw the scene. It was what had been done to him.

Friends who subsequently viewed photographs from the scene described injuries of extraordinary brutality.

His throat had been slit to the back of the neck. There was a deep cut at the rear of his skull. His tongue had been removed. The tips of his fingers bore deep cuts. His legs carried further wounds.

The Directorate of Criminal Investigations officer subsequently assigned to the case was said to have told the family plainly: “This boy was killed by someone who must have hated him so much.”

Significantly, the car Joe had been driving was found with its contents intact. His laptop remained inside.

Several other personal items were untouched. The only thing missing was his phone, and even the charger was still in the vehicle. His camera and photography equipment were reportedly recovered near the scene.

That the killers took nothing of obvious monetary value, while subjecting their victim to such prolonged and deliberate injury, has led friends and investigators alike to dismiss the robbery narrative outright.

THE WOMAN IN THE VEHICLE

Fresh details from the family have added a new and troubling dimension to the investigation. Joseph’s brother Robert, who travelled to Naivasha to meet DCI officers after the body was found, has disclosed that investigators told him Joe was not alone at the time of the murder. A female companion was allegedly in the vehicle when the killing took place.

Robert stated that a DCI colleague of the lead investigator, one Peter Orwa, revealed the detail informally after the formal briefing concluded.

According to Robert, he was told that a female friend had been in Joe’s car during the incident but that investigators had since released her without furnishing the family with any statement or formal account of what she witnessed.

“The DCI officer in charge said it is alleged that my brother had a female friend in his vehicle when the murder happened,” Robert recalled. He said the family was given no explanation for her release and no record of her account.

When Robert returned the following day with his parents seeking further information, the lead officer was absent, reportedly reassigned to duties in Kakamega and not expected back until March 11. The family says they have been left in a void of official silence at precisely the moment they need answers most.

THE SOCIAL MEDIA ERASURE

Among the details that have alarmed those close to Joe is the deliberate deletion of his social media presence.

Shortly after his disappearance, all his accounts vanished. Friends noted immediately that this was not consistent with a robbery.

Joe’s friend Evans Dims, who later travelled personally to Naivasha and viewed the photographs from the scene, told those around him that the deletion of the accounts confirmed, for him, that the murder was premeditated and targeted.

Whoever wanted Joe Miles dead also wanted to erase his digital footprint.

That the charger remained in the car while the phone itself was taken suggests the device was removed not for resale but for the data it contained, or to ensure that calls, messages and location history could not be recovered by investigators.

‘DIRECTOR, KUNA JOB?’

Joe Miles at work.

In the days since the murder, tributes have poured in from across Kenya’s creative and media communities. Lennox Omondi, a collaborator who first met Joe through Evans Dims in 2023, described a man defined by hustle and warmth in equal measure. The two had worked together on several significant productions, including the LREB documentary and a State of the County series.

“Myles was the kind of person who was always looking for the next challenge,” Omondi wrote. “Often calling me to ask, ‘Director, kuna job?’ He was a man who constantly stepped out of his comfort zone to provide and grow. Beyond his hustle, he was a truly gifted cameraman and editor. The news of his cold-blooded murder is a nightmare. Finding out his body was discovered along the highway in Naivasha is a level of cruelty I cannot process. You didn’t deserve this, Myles.”

Brian Odhiambo of the Political Headache Podcast described Joe as calm and vibrant, recalling a billboard shoot they had worked on together. “When I received the news of his murder by unknown people this Tuesday in Naivasha, my heart was broken,” Odhiambo wrote. “I am still deeply shocked. This is truly painful.”

A COMMUNITY DEMANDING JUSTICE

Grief has settled heavily over Jimo village in Nyakach Constituency, where Joe’s family is from. For those who knew him, the manner of his death compounds an already unbearable loss. The wounds described by those with access to the scene point not to opportunistic violence, but to a killing that was planned, sustained and deeply personal.

His family has called on the Directorate of Criminal Investigations to ensure full transparency in its inquiry and to provide them with regular updates on the progress of the case.

They want to know why a man who answered a phone call in the course of his work ended up more than four hundred kilometres from home with injuries that suggest he was subjected to prolonged torture before death.

As investigations continue, one question repeats itself in every tribute, every post, every conversation in the Kisumu creative community: who wanted Joe Miles dead, and why?