Before he took his own life on August 21, Timothy Njau appeared to be putting his affairs in order.
The 36-year-old teacher at Muruka Senior School in Murang’a took his family out for lunch at a restaurant in Thika, went shopping with them and unknown to his wife, rented a house a few kilometres from their home in Kenol.
His wife Elizabeth Waweru says the family only began piecing together the events surrounding his final days after his death.
On August 15, Mr Njau had rented a house near Kenol town. The following morning, he persuaded his family to attend Mass together at a local Catholic church.
The next day, August 17, they travelled to Thika, where they went shopping and had lunch.
In the church pew and during the family outing, Mr Njau appeared composed.
On August 26, neighbours raised the alarm after detecting a foul smell coming from one of the houses.
Photo credit: Pool
Five days later, he returned to the secret house after leaving school. Before going there, he passed by the family home, chatted with his children and left.
On August 26, neighbours raised the alarm after detecting a foul smell coming from one of the houses and inside was the body of Mr Njau, by then in an advanced state of decomposition.
The circumstances surrounding his final days have left his family grappling with questions over what drove him to take his own life.
For Ms Waweru, the tragedy cannot be reduced to claims that he died because of problems in their marriage. She admits that their marriage had been troubled and that she had at one point proposed that they separate. But she says the problems were more complicated than that.
Mr Njau had paid about Sh300,000 for her university education, funding her Bachelor of Education degree at a university in Thika. She graduated in early 2023.
In September that year, she secured a job through her local networks, having become involved in grassroots mobilisation around political and education issues.
She says her new career became a source of tension in the marriage, with Mr Njau becoming increasingly suspicious and demanding that she refund the money he had spent on her education.
In December 2023, she says, she took a loan from a local micro-lender and repaid him the money. But the disagreements did not end there.
Ms Waweru says she has since been accused of becoming arrogant after getting a job, neglecting her family and being unfaithful to her husband, claims which she rejects.
“People are saying that Njau committed suicide after he educated me and I became arrogant. I am also accused of being unavailable at home and there are allegations of infidelity. Let me ask you, how did we get four children if I was not available?” she says.
“I had explained to him that I was working hard because our Teachers Service Commission salary was meagre and I was working harder so that we could supplement our budget,” she says.
"Involvement in politics"
Friends who interacted with Mr Njau during the final months of his life, however, say he had complained about his wife's involvement in local politics.
They say he felt that her role as a grassroots mobiliser had taken her away from the family and added strain to an already troubled marriage.
She says she was also serving on a bursary board headed by Murang’a Woman Representative Betty Maina, but insists there is no evidence that her activities compromised her marriage.
According to Ms Waweru, her husband was an overthinker who struggled with pressure and could not easily cope with the challenges facing him.
“He had informed me that he was not appreciated at school and that the management had deliberately denied him promotion. He was indeed contemplating quitting and going into private practice,” she says.
Mr Njau's principal Gidraph Mbogo declined to discuss the matter when contacted by the Daily Nation.
“I do not want to be quoted in the media about that matter,” he said on Sunday morning.
But there was an earlier warning sign that, in hindsight, now appears chilling.
In March 2025, Mr Njau posted a message on his WhatsApp status indicating that he intended to take his own life.
“The news of my demise will shock many but I have to go for the sake of my boy and two girls,” he wrote, before signing off with a message of farewell.
Henry Nd’ung’u, a former schoolmate at Sabasaba Secondary School in Maragua Constituency, was among those who tried to intervene. A marriage counsellor also spoke to him and managed to dissuade him from the idea.
“When he posted that he was out to kill himself, I was concerned because this is a man I knew well and I was troubled. I requested that we meet in person, but he refused and we only discussed what was troubling him on the phone,” Mr Nd’ung’u says.
For the family, the earlier warning has become one of the most painful parts of the tragedy.
Mr Njau was buried last Friday at his ancestral home in Nanyuki. After mourners had left, Ms Waweru says she returned to his grave alone.
She spoke to him, asking questions that she knows will never be answered.
“I asked him why he had to kill himself. I asked him why he did not leave a suicide note outlining his actions because I am being blamed for his death,” she says.
She says she also reminded him of the burden he had left behind of four children, the youngest only eight months old.
“I told him that he had just increased the burden of life on me. And I told him that if he was lied to believe that I was an amorous woman and decided to take his own life, what he was fed with was a lie,” she says.
Whatever the exact circumstances of Mr Njau's final days, his death has left behind a family trying to make sense of a decision they say they never saw coming.
Ms Ann Mwangi, a counselling psychologist, says the case is a reminder of the need for accessible mental-health and counselling services, particularly as suicide remains a serious concern in Kenya.
For the Njau family, however, the search for answers is more immediate.
There was the secret house, the final family outing, the earlier suicide warning, the tensions at home and the pressures he was facing at work.
And then, on August 21, he disappeared into a house he had quietly prepared for his final act.
