Puzzle of NYS graduate who died days after reporting to camp
Simon Ng’ang’a, who worked at the Yatta NYS camp in Machakos County. His body was found dumped near a farm water pump on June 17, 2023..
When Simon Ng’ang’a, 22, left his Gatundu home on June 11 and went back to his workstation at the Yatta National Youth Service camp in Machakos county, he promised his family he would return soon.
However, six days later, on June 17, Ng’ang’a’s body was found dumped near a farm water pump.
He was still dressed in his official uniform.
According to his sister Joyce Muthoni, the family received a distress call from a senior NYS official on June 17 who reported that Ng’ang’a had been missing for two days.
She said the NYS official said that Ng’ang’a had gone missing on Saturday morning while another official claimed that he went missing on Friday.
According to the family, NYS claimed that Ng’ang’a’s body was found dumped on a farm.
An NYS officer privy to the investigation told the family that the body was dragged to the camp farm by unknown people.
A watchman informed police officers who rushed to the scene and moved it to a mortuary.
“What we know is that he died while in the camp, they are just hiding it from us. We want the truth about how he died and why. We just lost a young soul to selfish people. The police and officials at the camp are giving contradictory information,” said Ms Muthoni.
According to her, before reporting back to the camp on June 11, Ng’ang’a had been given 10 days off to attend to family matters.
Ms Muthoni said Ng’ang’a last spoke to his mother on June 15 but did not say if he was having any problems at the camp.
“He only asked his mother to inform him if she hears of any job opportunity,” said Ms Muthoni.
The third born in a family of five children joined NYS last year, graduated in February and was posted to Yatta camp, where he had served for only four months.
“He wanted to join either the police service or the military. He has attended many recruitments but he was not lucky. When the opportunity to join NYS presented itself, he grabbed it. It is unfortunate that he died before enjoying it,” said Ms Muthoni.
She described her brother as a quiet, kind-hearted, humble, straightforward, hardworking, and ambitious person who was looking forward to pursuing an engineering course.
The family is now calling for justice over his murder.
Want justice
“We want to know why he was killed, what was the motive. We want justice," said Ms Muthoni.
According to police reports, Ng’anga's body had bruises on the left side of the head.
The scene where the body was found had not been disturbed, an indication that the victim was murdered elsewhere and the body dumped at the scene to conceal evidence.
A post-mortem at the Mbaku funeral home revealed that Ng’ang’a died of asphyxia due to neck compression occasioned by strangulation.
The pathologist noted that the head had injuries from blunt force trauma. More samples were taken for toxicology examination.
Yatta sub-county Criminal Investigation Officer Bernard Rono said his office had launched investigations into the matter.
Two suspects have been arrested in connection with the murder and are in custody helping detectives with investigations.
"As of now, we have two suspects who are helping us, we are pursuing four more. All the suspects are civilians, they are not NYS officers," said Mr Rono.
