Body of LGBT activist found by the side of a road in Kenya

Police in Kenya are investigating the death of an LGBT activist whose body was found stuffed in a metal box.

The body of Edwin Chiloba was found on Wednesday on a road in Uasin Gishu County, in the west of the country.

Police say a motorcycle taxi operator reported seeing the box being dumped by a vehicle with no license plates.

The rider reported the incident to police officers who were manning a nearby roadblock.

Officers who opened the box found the decomposing body of a man, whom they described as wearing women's clothes.

The deceased was identified as Chiloba and his body was taken to the Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital in the town of Eldoret to establish the cause of death.

Police spokesperson Resila Onyango said the motive was not yet known.

“We don’t know for now why he was killed that way. Experts are handling the matter,” she said.

Chiloba is a known LGBT activist and has in the past been attacked and assaulted for his activism, his friend Denis Nzioka said.

LGBT people living in Kenya have often decried discrimination and attacks in a country where sex between men is illegal.

Kenya is largely a conservative society and the president has in past said that gay rights are a non-issue in the east African country.