There was grief written all over Alex Musyoki’s face as he sat on the grass at the Nairobi Funeral Home on Monday morning.
He absent-mindedly chewed on a blade of grass, his gaze fixed on the sky, as though searching for answers above him.
The lifeless body of his three-and-a-half-year-old daughter, Shanice Katheu, sat in the morgue compound. His eyes moist with tears.
He was struggling to comprehend how an ordinary Thursday afternoon ended with the death of his little girl.
A post-mortem examination conducted Monday afternoon concluded that Shanice died by drowning in Ngong’ River. The examination found that murky river water had filled her lungs.
Doctors also noted injuries to her head, which the examination attributed to contact with debris as her small body was carried along by the flowing water. A vaginal swab was collected for DNA analysis.
Though the findings established drowning as the cause of death, they did not explain how Shanice ended up in the river or the circumstances that led to her drowning.
For the family, the unanswered questions are a jarring reminder of the little girl they have lost as they prepare to bury her in Nzambani, Kitui.
They are left with one overriding question: how did Shanice travel from the safety of her neighbourhood to the waters of Ngong’ River, where she took her last breath?
Garbage dumped in a section of Ngong River, Mukuru kwa Njenga slums in Nairobi.
Photo credit: Dennis Onsongo | Nation Media Group
Nearby sat Shanice’s aunt, Jennifer David, deep in thought. She breathed in and out heavily, her exhaustion apparent, as neighbours sat closely on either side of her, offering quiet solidarity to a family whose world had fallen apart.
There were few words to ease their pain. Baby Shanice was lying in the mortuary, leaving behind a family struggling to understand how she died, and a 17-month-old sibling who must now grow up without her.
For Mr Musyoki, the memories of Thursday afternoon remained painfully fresh. At around 2pm, he returned home in Mukuru kwa Reuben in Nairobi, carrying fruits for his family.
He left at about 2.30pm, expecting to find his daughter safe at home when he returned.
Mr Musyoki came back from work at around 4pm and asked his wife, Francisca Kambua, where Shanice was. He wanted to ensure the little girl was wearing a sweater.
“She told me the child was just outside playing,” he recalled.
He stepped outside and began calling his daughter, checking in neighbours’ homes and searching the area.
When he failed to find her, Mr Musyoki reported her missing at Reuben Police Station before returning to continue the search.
Within about an hour and a half of her disappearance, Shanice had been found dead several kilometres away, near the railway line and Kware area, towards the Sinai side of Mukuru.
Some neighbours had seen a photograph circulating of a child lying lifeless. They recognised Shanice but were afraid to relay that information to her parents.
A police vehicle parked outside the admissions area of the Nairobi Funeral Home located along Ngong Road after delivering a dead body on November 07, 2025.
Photo credit: Francis Nderitu | Nation
Eventually, one neighbour pulled him aside, told him about the photograph and urged him to remain strong.
“I told him to show me the photograph. I recognized my child and returned to the police station. Police coordinated with Villa Police Station which had jurisdiction over the area where the body was found. We went to the station where I physically confirmed it was Shanice,” Mr Musyoki said.
The search had ended, but the circumstances of her death remained unclear.
Mr Musyoki, a fruit hawker in Mukuru kwa Reuben, said Shanice rarely ventured far from home and preferred playing indoors. She was a pupil at Greater Life School, where she attended playgroup, and had just begun her school holidays.
“She was an indoors kind of person. She would rather hide under the bed or jump on the seats than leave the house,” he said.
His wife is visually impaired, and he often helps her with daily chores and other responsibilities at home. He said the family would sometimes have to persuade Shanice to leave the house so that he could attend to his wife.
The distance between their home in Bandu area and where Shanice was found has left the family struggling to understand what happened.
He estimated that his daughter may have been dead at 3.30pm because the first sightings of her lifeless body were shortly before 4pm.
He said her body appeared largely intact, with dried grass in her hair and blood coming from her nose and ears.
The family, together with health personnel, also sought to establish whether there were signs of sexual assault. Mr Musyoki said they did not observe anything suggesting she had been defiled.
For Shanice’s aunt, Jennifer David, the family’s grief is compounded by the uncertainty surrounding the final moments of her niece’s life.
Her sister, Ms Kambua, is visually impaired and has been left deeply distressed by the loss, while the family must also care for Shanice’s 17-month-old sibling.
“My sister’s health is not good, and she is now very stressed,” Ms David said, adding,
“We, up to now, do not know how she could have walked all that distance to where she was found dead,” she said.
After confirming Shanice’s identity at Villa Police Station, the family visited Nairobi Funeral Home on Friday to ensure their daughter had clothes to wear. They then sought guidance on obtaining a death certificate and burial permit, returning to the mortuary on Sunday with the required documents.
Lucy Mbithe, a neighbour, said children sometimes wandered away from home in the settlement but none has ever been found dead.
“Children usually get lost, but they are always found at police stations or even at nearby children’s homes,” she said.
Finding answers is now part of the struggle to seek justice for Shanice and come to terms with a loss that has changed their lives forever.
