Police have launched an investigation after a British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) staff member was found dead in Nairobi.
Kate Mitchell, a British national who worked for BBC Media Action in a number of African countries, was found lying inside her hotel room on Friday.
The police are also looking into the circumstances under which a man who had been seen with her at the hotel plunged to his death from the eighth floor.
“The suspected culprit… jumped off the eighth floor of the hotel through the room’s window after sensing that the hotel security might be after him,” Nairobi regional police commander Augustine Nthumbi told reporters.
It is not thought Mitchell’s death at a hotel in the city was connected to her work for the organisation.
And while the exact circumstances of her death remain unclear, police told local media they were investigating it as a murder and exploring possible motives.
Mitchell most recently worked for BBC Media Action’s office in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa.
“We are all shocked and horrified by this terrible news,” BBC Media Action CEO Caroline Nursey said in a statement.
“Kate was a much-loved member of staff, who worked as a Senior Project Manager and had been with us for fourteen years. She was well known across our whole organisation, especially by our teams in Ethiopia, South Sudan, Zambia, and London.
“We send our deepest condolences to her family and her many friends around the world,” she added.
BBC Media Action is the corporation’s international charity, and its projects focus on using media and communication to address inequality around the world.
Source; BBC
