One night in October 2007, Mr Samuel Gitau had retired to his home after gruelling campaigns for that year’s General Election in which he was vying to become Ithanga councillor.
Three months to the vote, Mr Gitau was ranked the frontrunner with 58 percent, according to an opinion poll by Gatanga 2007 Watch, a local political lobby.
His wife, Teresiah Wairimu, recalls she welcomed her husband home at around 11pm on October 9, 2007.
"He came home accompanied by five men who acted as his campaign bouncers. I served them rice and beef stew. After my husband gave them their daily stipend, they left at around midnight," she says.
"He glanced at the screen and clicked his tongue. He uttered something to do with police greed and threw the phone on the dressing table in our bedroom," she recollects. “But the phone continued ringing incessantly.”
"He picked it but instead of switching it off, he answered the call. He started as if to get tough with the caller but appeared to freeze. He became attentive and the last I heard him say was that he was on his way," she recounts.
At around 1am, Mr Gitau left the house and did not disclose where he was going or who he was going to meet.
Eighteen years later, the wife has lost hope of finding her husband.
"I reported him missing at Kaguku police station four days later and the process of searching for him commenced," she says. But the search has been futile.
He left behind four children – three daughters and a son – who are now aged between 19 and 28 years.
"We got married in 1994...My husband was so ambitious, he had vowed to be Gatanga MP by 2018," she says.
According to police records, Mr Gitau's phone was switched off at Makuyu town that is about 20 kilometres from his home.
The phone signal became dormant at around 3am. It was later briefly traced to Nairobi's Lunga Lunga estate on October 11, 2007 before it disappeared from the radar.
The report states that "after we circulated a missing person signal countrywide together with his photo, we notified Industrial Area police station in Nairobi that he went missing within its jurisdiction".
The November 18, 2008 report by Gatanga's Directorate of Criminal Investigations indicates that Industrial Area police station later provided an update regarding the missing person.
"We are notified that Mr Gitau had a public transport vehicle that plied Route 33 in the City...It had been grounded for some time and was parked in a garage in Lunga Lunga estate," the report reads.
The report notes that "the witness to the scene was a woman hawker. The owner of the garage said he was not around. No other person has come forward to testify that he or she saw them".
"Industrial Area police station further briefed us that it had recorded the statement of the witness and proceeded to confirm whether any officers with a mandate to serve the particular garage and its environs had arrested him".
Meanwhile, Ms Wairimu had been advised to search in hospitals and mortuaries as police continued with their investigations.
But 18 years later, Mr Gitau is yet to be found.
"While it was normal that I as his wife remain optimistic that my husband will one day turn up alive and reunite with us, succession challenges are now demanding that I rethink that stand...There are many complications in my continued patience to see him come back home alive," she says.
For instance, the four-acre land on which their house sits is still registered in his name.
"My husband had a bank account that had substantial money...a man who owned a matatu and was running for political office must have been wealthy somehow," she argues. “My husband was transacting in millions...he left behind a fortune.”
With her children now adults, she feels that she needs to secure administrative rights for her husband's estate, adding that he had named her next of kin.
"But to take over, I must present his consent or evidence of his death," Ms Wairimu laments.
Meanwhile, her in-laws also want to take control of Mr Gitau's estate.
His parents, Joram Mwangi and Joyce Wanjiru, in a report to Ithanga chief's camp on May 15, 2021, want to be recognised as their son's estate administrators.
"In the absence of physical proof of our son being around to manage his estate, it should be placed in our hands as his parents," their letter reads.
Ms Wairimu adds that "there exists unfounded rumours around me that I might have been responsible for the disappearance of my husband hence I should be disinherited". She has repeatedly argued that she had nothing to do with his disappearance.
Ms Wairimu adds that the judicial process of declaring her husband dead is being sabotaged by his family.
Mr Timothy Kariuki, a lawyer, says that "you are declared legally dead if you have been missing for over seven years".
He says the initiator of the presumption of death prayer in court should present substantial evidence proving no contact has been made with anyone reasonably expected to hear from him or her if alive.
Ms Wairimu says that whenever she applies for the order, her husband’s relatives file applications saying Mr Gitau had contacted them and promised to return home soon.
Mr Kariuki says such claims should be subjected to proof of method used to contact those claiming so and they should also provide audio or visual evidence of the missing person making the contact.
"The court should be in a position to ensure evidence is tabled," Mr Kariuki says.
He adds that if Ms Wairimu convinces the court that her husband has not been heard from, then the presumption of death order will be granted.
"Once the declaration of presumed death is granted, she can then apply for a grant of probate or letters of administration so as to take charge of her husband's estate upon proof that she is the next of kin," he says.
Should Mr Gitau reappear, then he can go to court and file an application with evidence proving his identity.
