The casket bearing the body of Randy Kimingichi during his requiem service at the family home in Utawala, Machakos County, on July 1, 2026.
The requiem Mass for Randy Mathenge Kimingichi, a 14-year-old who died after a controversial fall from the third floor of a building in his school, happened on Wednesday with barely an attendance from his school.
Despite being less than two kilometres from the venue of the Mass, Lakewood Premier School in Utawala had no official representation at the event. No learner in Lakewood’s uniform attended, and neither did anyone ask if Lakewood representatives were in attendance.
It all points to bad blood between the institution and the family of the Grade 9 boy.
The school had informed the family that Randy plunged to his death. However, the family, speaking to journalists on June 19 when he died, rejected the explanation. Their key contention was the fact that Randy’s body barely had bruises on any body part besides the head.
“We are not doctors but we can see. We seek justice. All I want is Lakewood School in Utawala to give me answers,” Randy's mother, Joyce Muyoka Kilwake, said.
His father, David Kisali, had noted: “We cannot believe [the suicide theory] as a family because our son was in good health; a jovial man. He left in the morning, going to school, and then now we are told a different story that we cannot believe.”
“We have tried to interview different people from the same school but they are giving us different stories,” added Ms Kisali, a teacher at Enoomatasiani Girls.
Randy’s eulogy dedicated a substantial amount of space to his state of mind before the alleged suicide.
The casket bearing the body of Randy Kimingichi during his requiem service at the family home in Utawala, Machakos County, on July 1, 2026.
“On the evening of Thursday, June 18, 2026, Randy returned home from school accompanied by his cousin, both of them full of life and laughter. They were jovial and in high spirits, ate their meals well, and settled in to watch football together as a family. The conversation that evening was warm and full of hope. They spoke of future careers, of possible senior schools, of the road ahead. There was every reason to be happy,” Randy’s eulogy reads in part.
“No one in that room could have known it would be their last evening together. The following morning, word reached the family that there had been an accident at Randy’s school, and that a student had lost his life. In a rush of anxiety and concern, the family hurried to the school seeking information — desperate, yet still holding onto hope. It was there that the unbearable truth was revealed. The deceased was Randy. The boy who sat with his family just hours before, laughing and dreaming of the future, was gone,” it added.
Severe head injury
At a post-mortem that was done at the Kenyatta National Hospital on Tuesday, the family’s representative told the media: “We have found that the late student suffered severe head injury and also back and chest injury due to what we can call blunt force trauma and is consistent with a fall from a height.”
In an interview with Nation on Wednesday evening, Lakewood’s lawyer Danstan Omari said the family had been “hostile”.
Joyce Muyoka Kilwake (seated) is comforted by family members and friends during the requiem mass for her son, Randy Kimingichi, at their home in Utawala, Machakos County, on July 1, 2026.
“There was hostility during post-mortem, where the family believes that the school is culpable. Because of that hostility during post-mortem, where I was present along with the directors of the school, we felt that it was not appropriate to send a school representative,” he said.
“We offered to provide financial support for the burial expenses, but the family rejected,” he added. “The school was ready to underwrite all the expenses but they rejected it.”
“Therefore, we felt that it would be in order to allow them to conduct their business in privacy. So, we didn’t want to go there,” added Mr Omari.
When he addressed the media on Tuesday, Mr Omari promised that the school “will cooperate with the investigators, with the pathologists, with the family”.
“Let us not speculate the cause of death. If the cause of death will be determined, the law is available to deal with the decision the pathologist and the DCI will make,” added Mr Omari.
The casket bearing the body of Randy Kimingichi during his requiem service at the family home in Utawala, Machakos County, on July 1, 2026.
Randy had just been baptised in the Roman Catholic Church days before his demise. He received his first Holy Communion on June 7, just 12 days before his death.
Typed tributes in the burial programme depicted Randy as a young man with massive dreams and immense talent.
“Thank you for making me proud to be your mother. Although your years were few, your impact was great,” the mother, a teacher at Oloolaiser High School, wrote.
The cousins, in a joint tribute, said: “We will always remember your eagerness to share your new edits and drawings.”
The eulogy, in a topic about Randy’s gifts and dreams, stated that he was an astute swimmer who had an artistic mind.
“Randy was blessed with an artistic mind. When he put pencil to paper, his drawings did not merely sit on the page—they came to life. In his art, as in everything he did, there was a depth and a soul that spoke of someone far beyond his years,” it read.
Randy will be buried on Friday at Kimingichi farm in Kiminini, Trans Nzoia County.
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