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Police in Homa Bay County have arrested two brothers in connection with the brutal killing of a university professor following a long-standing land dispute in Mbita. The suspects were captured on Saturday, October 4, 2025, after a days-long manhunt linked to the murder of their brother, Associate Professor Thomas Tonny Onyango Mboya, 56. Officers said three more suspects are still being pursued and that the arrested pair will appear in court on Monday, October 6, to face murder charges.
According to police reports, Prof. Mboya, who served as the Director of the School of Mathematics and Statistics at the Technical University of Kenya (TUK), was attacked on September 30 while marking boundaries on a contested piece of land. He was accompanied by his father, Wilson Onyango Opanga, who was also assaulted and left with serious injuries.
Witnesses said one of the attackers, who had allegedly built structures on the disputed property, became enraged after a court ordered him to demolish them. Instead of complying, he reportedly stormed the land armed with a panga, viciously attacking Prof. Mboya and his father. The professor died on the spot after being struck in the neck, while his father was rushed to a nearby hospital in critical condition.
The attackers fled the scene as residents raised alarm and tried to chase them down. Police later launched an intensive search that led to the arrest of the two brothers believed to have been directly involved in the killing. Nyanza Regional DCI boss George Mutonya confirmed the arrests, saying the late professor and his father had been waiting for police and the area chief to arrive and oversee the enforcement of the court order when they were ambushed.
“The assailants attacked them before our officers could reach the scene. We are pursuing the remaining suspects and expect justice to be served soon,” Mutonya said.
The death of Prof. Mboya has left a deep sense of loss among his family, friends, and colleagues, who described him as a humble, brilliant academic and a man of integrity. Born in 1970, he began his education at Kokuro Secondary School, completing his O-Level studies in 1987 before proceeding to Homa Bay High School for his A-Levels in 1989. He later joined Egerton University, where he earned a Bachelor of Education (Science) degree in 1993.
Prof. Mboya began his teaching career under the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) in 1994. Three years later, he took study leave to pursue a Master of Science degree in Mathematics at the University of Nairobi, graduating in 1999. After completing his postgraduate studies, he returned to teaching before joining the Catholic University of Eastern Africa (CUEA) in 2002 as a lecturer.
His passion for mathematics and research took him to the United Kingdom in 2005, where he earned a PhD in Inverse and Ill-posed Problems from the University of Leeds in 2008. He returned to CUEA in 2009, where he continued teaching and mentoring students before joining the Technical University of Kenya in 2012 as a Senior Lecturer and later as the Chair of the Department of Statistics and Computational Mathematics.
Colleagues at TUK remembered him as a dedicated scholar whose contribution to mathematical research and education inspired many. His death has been described as a huge blow to Kenya’s academic community.
Police have assured the public that investigations are ongoing and that all those responsible for the professor’s killing will be brought to justice. Meanwhile, his father remains hospitalized in Homa Bay, fighting for his life.