An LGBT activist in Kenya has been found dead – stuffed in a metal box.

Edwin Chiloba’s body was discovered on Wednesday on a road in Uasin Gishu County, in the country’s west.

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

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

Officers who opened the box found the decomposing body of Mr Chiloba, who they said was wearing women’s clothes.

His remains were taken to the Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital to establish a cause of death.

The motive for his apparent murder is not yet known, police spokeswoman Resila Onyango said.

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

Mr Chiloba was a known LGBT activist and had been attacked and assaulted for his activism, his friend Denis Nzioka tweeted on Wednesday.

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 the past said gay rights are a non-issue in the east African country.