George Njuguna, a taxi driver, was excited at the prospects of a mouthwatering deal last July.
A two-week contract to ferry a group of foreigners, who were arriving in the country for a church mission, was the kind of deal every operator dreamt of.
He shared the good news with his wife, Susan Wangeci, and mother Jane Murigi, who had given him the vehicle to support his wife and two children.
Mr Njuguna had to cut short a visit to his mother’s home in Kehancha, Migori County, to travel to Nairobi to seal the deal.
On July 28, his wife woke up at dawn to prepare him for the journey to the capital city. She saw him off, hoping for good tidings. When Mr Njuguna’s car ran out of fuel in Kisii town, his mother bailed him out. Nothing could derail his journey to making a killing. But little did they know that he was embarking on a doomed voyage. And that morning was the last time they would see him alive.
When Mr Njuguna reached Nairobi, he contacted his family and confirmed meeting with the driver who had linked him to the clients.
However, the family never got to know whether he ever met the clients. “I called him and he said he was in Nairobi. He confirmed he was okay. At around 9pm, he told me he was still with the driver. I became worried and wondered why the clients were not concerned about him,” Ms Murigi testified last week before High Court judge Samuel Mohochi.
This turned out to be the last conversation between mother and son. She made numerous calls the following day, but they went unanswered. Thereafter, his phone was switched off.
Concerned about her son's safety, Ms Murigi reported the matter on July 31 at the Kehancha Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) office. The detectives informed her that they could not trace Mr Njuguna’s phone as it was switched off. She went home praying and hoping that her son was safe.
After running out of patience, she travelled to the DCI headquarters in Nairobi and recorded a statement about the disappearance. On August 29, she received a call from Gilgil DCI, who summoned her to their office. “When I went there, I was told my son had died. The DCI said they collected my son’s body at Heaven’s Gate along the Nakuru-Nairobi highway. They took me to the Gilgil mortuary to see the body of my son.”
Ms Murigi says her son had blood on his head with broken ribs and a decapitated neck. A postmortem revealed that he had been hit with a blunt object and died from bleeding. After his burial, the mother was called by the DCI and informed that the car had been found. She travelled to the DCI office in Gilgil and confirmed the vehicle—a Toyota Noah, registration number KDD 468C.
It had been branded “veterinary” on the front screen. Ms Murigi said the car was hers and she had only given it to her son to use to support his family.
A suspect who was found with the vehicle, Edwin Ngetich, was charged with the murder of Mr Njuguna. Mr Ngetich allegedly killed Mr Njuguna between July 29 and July 30, 2024.
Mr Njuguna's body was found dumped in a forest at Soysambu Conservancy in Gilgil, Nakuru. The suspect is further linked to the abduction and murder of another taxi driver, Veronica Muloki, on September 27, 2024.
Mr Ngetich was arraigned in Mombasa. He is held on Kamiti Maximum Prison remand after the court denied him bond.
