One man, two burial sites: The sad story of Kelvin Karanja Kimani
Mr Peter Mathenge Kamau, an uncle to murder victim Kelvin Karanja Kimani (inset), during an interview at Sipili, Laikipia County on February 10, 2023.
What you need to know:
- The 24-year-old, who hailed from Laikipia County, worked as a barber in Nairobi.
- At home, his mother worried about him not calling her while at work, and his colleagues wondered why he had not shown up.
- Relatives and colleagues launched a search for him. His workmates reported his absence to the local chief and the mother sent an uncle, who knows Nairobi well, to help find him.
Kelvin Karanja Kimani usually checked on his mother every day and the sun would not set without him calling home. When two days went by without him calling, she instinctively knew that something was wrong with her son.
The 24-year-old, who hailed from Laikipia County, worked as a barber in Nairobi. At home, his mother worried about him not calling her while at work, and his colleagues wondered why he had not shown up.
Relatives and colleagues launched a search for him. His workmates reported his absence to the local chief and the mother sent an uncle, who knows Nairobi well, to help find him.
Unknown to them, Kelvin was dead; his body lying at Mama Lucy Kibaki Hospital mortuary in Nairobi.
Now, the mortuary claims the body is still lying there while the family says they buried Kelvin. The body is among many others that are unclaimed and will be disposed of soon if the court gives the green light.
Actually, the Nairobi City County Government could have already buried it, going by the statement by the Health executive to newsrooms notifying the public that the county had disposed of unclaimed bodies.
The last time the family was in touch with Kelvin was on August 8, 2022.
Criminals' hands
He reportedly left work one evening on August 23 last year, but it’s unclear how he found himself in the hands of criminals who threw him down from the six-storey Mutongwe Building in Huruma, from where he was rushed to Mama Lucy Kibaki Hospital.
He was checked into the hospital at 4 pm in critical condition, placed on medication at 7 pm and died two hours later.
Kelvin was brought up by his uncle, Peter Mathenge. According to Mr Mathenge, his nephew was hardworking, obedient and a man of few words. At some point, however, he became an alcoholic. Even as life was ebbing out of his body, he reeked of alcohol, a medic at the hospital told his relatives.
When he left home in search of his nephew, Mr Mathenge hoped he would find him alive. At the time of Kelvin’s disappearance, there were reports of bodies found floating in River Yala. He was not among them, Mr Mathenge said. He visited police stations in Nairobi, all public hospitals, and mortuaries for more than 43 days.
He visited the mortuary at Mama Lucy three times. What complicated his search, Mr Mathenge said, was “his name was not among those in the registration book” but, when he went to the mortuary’s shelves, he discovered his nephew’s body.
“When we went in with an attendant at the mortuary to check the records, the officer realised that their records matched the details I gave,” Mr Mathenge told Nation.
“Then the officer told me that my nephew was lying at the facility.”
That was on September 27.
Kelvin had been thrown down from the sixth floor of a building by unknown people, who fled the scene after the heinous act, a neighbour told the uncle. Kelvin lived in another building nearby. He was rushed to the hospital by rescuers.
A neighbour who was at the scene but fled when it turned chaotic moments before Kelvin was thrown down said: “I got scared and fled. I locked myself inside the house. Moments later, I heard screams. On getting out, I realised that someone had been thrown down from the balcony. I took photos and videos of the victim being rushed to hospital.”
Body confirmed
About 20 relatives confirmed that the body was indeed Kelvin’s, the uncle said.
“I am sure it’s his body that we buried here,” he said, pointing at a grave that had an epitaph detailing Kelvin’s date of birth and death. The flowerbed is full of withering plants.
According to the uncle, the family paid the Sh33,000 mortuary bill before they were allowed to take the body home. Kelvin was buried on October 4, next to his father, Daniel Kimani, at the family farm. Wangwachi chief Paul Nasky attended the burial.
“His mother, originally from the Sipili location, remarried after her first husband died. She moved in with Kelvin. But, as per the customs, Kelvin had to be buried where his biological father hailed from,” he said.
The hospital’s claim that Kelvin’s body is still lying in the mortuary is a mystery. A source at Mama Lucy, who cannot be named due to the sensitivity of the matter, confirmed to Nation that Kelvin’s body was still lying at the mortuary, unclaimed.
Did the family bury the wrong body? What might have gone wrong? Nation had obtained Kelvin’s details as listed by the Registrar of Persons in an effort to unite the body with the family. But the family had buried a body with the exact names as the records that we had. Whose body is lying unclaimed at the mortuary?
Tomorrow: Read about Wallace Githinji Wairimu, who called Maili Kumi in Nakuru County home when he was alive. But now, he is dead, and neither the town nor the village knows him
