NAIROBI, KENYA (June 3, 2008) – A murder investigation into the death of photojournalist Trent Keegan, 33, who was found dead Wednesday in a drainage ditch near a main highway in the capital, has lead police to question the photojournalist's friends and roommate – but as of yet no suspects have been identified in his death.
Keegan was a New Zealand native who had been living in Ireland and working frequently in Africa.
Police have retraced Keegan's activities the night before his death, a police spokesman told The New Zealand Herald, including talking to one of the photojournalist's friends who was with Keegan at a bar that night. The friend may have been the last to see Keegan alive.
The friend told police that Keegan was carrying expensive equipment with him, including his cameras and laptop computer, when he left the bar and that Keegan was not comfortable carrying gear of that value with him in the city. The photographer was overheard negotiating with a taxi driver over the fare to the city's center but that the fare was too high. Apparently Keegan then decided to travel on foot.
When his body was found, police said, Keegan still had his wallet and money but the laptop and cameras were missing. A serious head injury appeared to be the cause of death.
The Herald reported that the photographer's father, Mike Keegan, is working to have his son's body returned to him in New Zealand as soon as possible. He would not comment on reports that his son had been investigating a land deal that would displace tribes in Kenya to make way for a safari park. There are news reports that local authorities have been helping with the land deal, and that Keegan had filed a complaint with police about being harassed by security people from the safari park.
