On a quiet Friday evening in Gitaru, on the outskirts of Kikuyu Town, the life of 18-year-old Samuel Mbogo was brutally cut short; a night that began with a simple household chore and ended in an alleged lynching that has left a family broken and a community haunted by fear.
Mbogo's only mistake – an accusation that he had stolen his neighbour's chicken.
At around 7.00 pm on September 26 2025, Mbogo stood outside their small rented house, helping his younger siblings light a jiko for supper. His mother, Sophia Wangui, was away in Laikipia, leaving him in charge of his two siblings and three nephews. None could have imagined that the night would turn into a nightmare that would scar them forever.
According to Mbogo’s younger sister, Muthoni* (not her real name), trouble began when three women from the neighbourhood — women well-known to them – walked into their compound.
“We were lighting the jiko when they came through the gate and took Samuel. (Mbogo). They passed behind our house and took him to our neighbour’s compound. When I followed them after a few minutes, I saw them hitting him with pangas and rungus,” she said.
The Grade Five pupil screamed and ran to alert the landlord, Peter Gichuhi, who quickly joined her, hoping to stop the attack.
“I heard screams and rushed out. I found Ben, a gardener who worked at that compound where Mbogo had been dragged to had also been beaten. When Mbogo saw me, he shouted, “Mzee, tell them I am not a thief!”
“But when I tried to intervene, they slapped and kicked me away. They said that he and Ben had stolen five chickens from the neighbour’s compound. I called his mother immediately and told her that her son was being beaten badly,” he said.
The coffin bearing the remains of the late Samuel Mbogo Wangui during his burial at Langata Cemetery on October 09, 2025.
Photo credit: Francis Nderitu| Nation Media Group
The mob, allegedly led by one of the three women, known to residents as ‘Mama Martin’, ignored pleas from neighbours to stop. They continued hitting Mbogo even as he bled, his voice fading under the weight of blows.
“When they were done, they dumped his unconscious body by the roadside near Mlima Cross, along the Gitaru–Wangige road,” Mr Gichuhi said.
In Laikipia, Sophia Wangui, Mbogo’s mother, received a frantic phone call from Mr Gichuhi.
“He told me, ‘Things are not good, your son is being killed.’ I couldn’t believe it,” she said, adding,
“By the time I got home, they had beaten him until his tongue came out. He could not talk again.”
Sophia Wangui Chege briefs the media on the unclear circumstances that led to her son, Samuel Mbogo Wangui's death during the burial held at Langata Cemetery on October 09, 2025.
Photo credit: Francis Nderitu| Nation Media Group
Even more disturbing for the mother is the fact that her younger daughter, Muthoni*, witnessed her brother’s beating and even saw his body lying by the road, where he had been dumped after being beaten.
“They said he was a thief. But even when Ben, the gardener, screamed that Sam wasn’t a thief, they kept beating both of them. They didn’t listen,” Ms Wangui said.
Severe injuries, hospital rules
Some neighbours eventually rushed Mbogo to Life Point Hospital in Gitaru, but doctors quickly referred him to Thogoto Hospital due to the severity of his injuries. By the time his uncle, Francis Mbogo, arrived, the teenager was unconscious, his body swollen and bruised from head to toe.
“He had a blood clot on the left side of his head. His left eye was swollen shut, his arm and leg broken, and his skull fractured. The doctors said he needed emergency surgery and Sh100,000 for admission to Kenyatta National Hospital (KNH),” Mr Mbogo said.
The family scrambled to raise the money, borrowing from relatives – including one of Mbogo’s sisters who works in Saudi Arabia. But when Mbogo finally reached KNH, they encountered another nightmare.
“We were told he is not a member of the Social Health Authority (SHA) system. He was left on a bed at the casualty unit, with just a drip on, urinating on himself. They said they couldn’t treat him until he was registered,” the uncle revealed.
Sophia Wangui Chege, mother to the late Samuel Mbogo Wangui, sits with Francis Mbogo Chege (right,) the deceased's uncle.
Photo credit: Francis Nderitu| Nation Media Group
It took almost two days for Mbogo to be officially admitted – a delay his uncle believes cost him his life.
“He was in critical condition. By the time they moved him to Ward 5A, he could neither talk nor move. On Monday morning, I saw the doctors’ faces, and I knew our boy was gone,” he said.
Mbogo died early that Monday morning, three days after the beating. His family says they only learned of his death hours later when a nurse asked them to “go and check on the body.”
In the days that followed, grief gave way to anger. When Ms Wangui and her family went to Kanyariri Police Station to report the incident, they were met with indifference.
“We were told they could not handle our case because Mbogo had already died. We did not even get an OB number, which only came later when we needed to get the post-mortem examinations,” she said.
Undaunted, Ms Wangui sought a burial permit from the area chief and proceeded with a post-mortem.
It was only days later that the case was forwarded to King’eero Police Station, and persons of interest were called to record statements with the police.
“We pointed out the woman who led the attack. She was there even during the questioning, acting like nothing had happened,” Mr Gichuhi said.
Two weeks later, the family says no arrests have been made. The main suspects – the three women and their sons – continue walking freely around the estate.
When contacted, the officer investigating the case confirmed that the incident had initially been recorded as a mob injustice case, but detectives have since opened a separate probe after inconsistencies emerged in witness accounts.
“We are investigating the death of one Samuel Mbogo. The report we first received indicated mob justice after a suspected theft incident, but new information suggests there could have been foul play and we are now probing a possible murder case,” he said.
He added that the neighbour fingered by several witnesses for curating Mbogo’s beating is among the persons of interest and is on the police’s radar.
“The matter is being handled as a homicide until proven otherwise,” he said.
Neighbours, too, remain uneasy. The attack has stirred tension in the community, where whispers of revenge and fear of retaliation linger.
“Everyone is afraid. If someone can be killed in front of witnesses and nothing happens, then no one is safe,” another witness, identified as Peter, told the Nation.
For Ms Wangui, the pain is still raw- not just from losing her firstborn son, but from watching the system that should protect her family turn its back on them.
Buried as questions linger
Her family buried their son in an emotional ceremony last Thursday at Lang’ata Cemetery. A young man, Leon, who was Mbogo’s best friend, lost consciousness, his last words, “Sam, why did you leave so soon? Why would they accuse you of stealing chicken? You died because some people valued chicken more than your life!”
To the heartbroken mother, the brute manner which her son met her death will not erase the fond memories she has of her son.
“He was a good boy. He was not a thief. He used to help with the little ones, run errands, and I was enrolling him for a polytechnic course because he did not even get to clear from secondary school. Now he is gone. All I want is justice. I know my son was innocent.”
“He was calling for help. He told them he was not a thief, but nobody listened. They beat him until he stopped moving,” she said, clutching her son’s burial programme at Lang’ata Cemetery.
Sophia Wangui Chege.
Photo credit: Francis Nderitu| Nation Media Group
Other than the burial programme print-out, another document the teary mother clutched was the post-mortem examination results.
This document confirmed what the family already knew- Mbogo died of severe head trauma caused by blunt force injuries.
His story is now another grim statistic in Kenya’s growing list of mob-justice victims. Yet for his mother, Mbogo was not a statistic. He was her firstborn, her helper, the boy who always smiled even when times were hard.
“They said he was a thief. But all he stole was our hearts. We demand for justice,” Ms Wangui said.
