On October 13, Ms Margret Mbaire prepared her first-born son, Samuel Mwangi, for mass at St Paul Catholic Church in Mau Summit, Kuresoi, Nankuru County.
Mwangi, a Grade One pupil, had been attending church at the worship centre for five years.
Dressed in his Sunday best— black trousers, a white and green striped pullover, black shoes, and a black jacket— Mwangi left home with his cousins.
Ms Mbaire said she expected him back in a few hours, but tragically, that would be the last time she saw her son alive.
Mwangi mysteriously disappeared after the service and a week later, his body was found in an abandoned 30-foot school latrine.
Ms Mbaire, still struggling to understand her son’s death, recounted how Samuel had gone to mass with three younger cousins.
After the 9am service, the four stayed to play hide-and-seek within the church compound.
However, Mwangi didn’t return home with the others who claimed that he had gone missing during the game,” Ms Mbaire said tearfully at their Kaza moyo village.
Margaret Mbaire, mother of Grade One Samuel Mwangi who went missing last week and later found dead and body dumped in a pit within Mau Summit Primary School, during the interview on October 22, 2024.
Photo credit: Boniface Mwangi | Nation Media Group
“I was shocked to see them without Mwangi. I asked them where he was and they said he went missing while playing. We thought he would come home later when he realized they had left but that didn’t happen.”
The minor was later found dead at Mau Summit Primary School “where he had been a student since PP1, a place he knew well because he always played there”.
Mwangi's aunt Mary Njeri said after the boy failed to return home, they launched a search party that lasted late into the night.
But despite their efforts, Mwangi wasn’t found.
The family filed a missing person’s report at Mau Summit Police Station the next day and even posted on social media to help spread the word.
Ms Njeri then received a strange phone call on Tuesday from someone claiming to be a police officer stationed at the Isebania area with the caller claiming that Mwangi had been rescued from a kidnapper and was injured but alive.
“The caller refused to send us Mwangi’s photo, claiming he wasn’t near him. He insisted he wanted to speak to Mwangi’s mother. When we became persistent, he said it was a wrong number and told us not to ask him anything more about Mwangi,” she said.
The family reported the incident to the police who traced the caller’s number to Kayole in Nairobi County.
Despite this unsettling call, their search for Mwangi continued.
Five days after his disappearance, villagers volunteered to help and they split into groups, scouring the area.
That search led to an abandoned latrine where villagers made the horrifying discovery of Mwangi’s body floating in the water-filled pit.
Esther Waithera, displays the school uniform of Grade One Samuel Mwangi who went missing last week and later found dead and his body dumped in a pit within Mau Summit Primary School.
Photo credit: Boniface Mwangi | Nation Media Group
“At first, one of the searchers thought it was an animal, maybe a pig. But when they looked closer, they realized it was Mwangi’s body. We immediately called the police who removed him and took him to the Londiani mortuary, awaiting a postmortem,” Njeri said.
The villagers had been told that St Paul’s church was undergoing latrine renovations and worshippers had been using the school’s facilities in the meantime.
Despite this, the school initially denied access to the search party forcing the villagers to gain entry through a fence to continue the search.
“When we got there, one of the searchers removed some leaves from the latrine and saw something unusual. He called the rest of us over and that’s when we found Mwangi. We called the police and they removed the body,” Njeri said.
Ms Njeri added that she enquired with the school administration about the abandoned pit but the head teacher claimed to be new at the school and unaware of the latrine’s existence.
The family is devastated and seeking answers about how Mwangi ended up in that latrine. They have called for a full investigation to understand the circumstances of his death.
Esther Waithera, a family friend, expressed shock at how swiftly the school acted to address the abandoned pit only after Mwangi’s death.
“When Mwangi was found it felt like the school was suddenly ready to fix the issue yet it had been abandoned for years. Why did it take a tragedy for them to act?” she questioned.
Kuresoi North Sub-county Police Commander Judah Gathenge refused to comment on the matter deferring it to the Ministry of Education.
“We are investigating the matter. If you want more information, you’ll have to contact the Sub-county Ministry of Education,” he told Nation.Africa.
Ms Mbaire and her family the sudden death under such mysterious circumstances sparked more questions than answers.
“Samuel was such a loving boy. He had so much life ahead of him. All we want now is to understand what happened to him,” the devastated mother said.
As the investigation into Mwangi’s death unfolds, his family waits, hoping for justice and resolution in the face of this unthinkable tragedy.
