He was my life, says Kabete MP George Muchai driver’s widow

Muchai driver's wife Teresia Wanjiku and her two children Joy Wamboi,11 and Angelinet Wanjiru,4 at their Huruma house (PHOTO; JENIPHER WACHIE)

Friday February 6 will be edged on Teresia Wanjiku's mind forever. The day begun like any other for the 32-year-old mother of two, who lives in John Saga area, Huruma Estate, in the outskirts of Nairobi.

Wanjiku woke up at 5am, as usual, to prepare breakfast for her husband Stephen Wambugu, 37. When Wambugu, who was Kabete MP George Muchai's driver, left for work a few minutes later, Wanjiku went back to sleep as she usually does. She woke up a short while later to prepare their two children for school.

That would be the last time she would see her husband of close to 12 years alive. Wambugu was shot dead hours later in the company of his employer and two bodyguards.
"He called me at around 10am like he usually does to find out if the kids had gone to school and whether I had left for town where I work as a salonist. We spoke again at 10pm when he called to ask me to prepare his supper," a tearful Wanjiku told The Standard on Sunday.
"I informed him that I was going for night vigil (kesha) as I always did at Prayers Beyond Boundaries Ministry church in Ngara and he said he would join me once he had had his supper," she said.

Little did she know that that would be the last conversation with her husband.

"I arrived back to the house a few minutes to 6am and realised immediately that something was amiss. The food I had prepared him was still untouched on the table, which was quite strange. When I went to the bedroom, I found the door was still locked the way I had left it," she recounts.

Wanjiku called her husband's cellphone to find out where he was, but it went unanswered. Her calls to Muchai's body guards were not answered either. "I got a feeling that something was amiss. A few minutes later, a next door neighbour knocked at the door. She looked disturbed and asked me whether I had watched the news on TV or listened to the radio," she said.

The breaking news that greeted her when she turned on her TV were shocking: her husband, Muchai and two bodyguards had been  shot dead in the city centre.

"I left for the MP's Ruai home but it still appeared unreal that my husband was truly gone. I asked to be taken to view his body so I could believe that he was really no more and I was taken to the Lee Funeral home where I confirmed that indeed he was indeed gone," a shaken Ms Wanjiku said, fighting back tears.

"He was my life and everything, the bread winner to our young family and his parents who live in Mukuruweini. I do not know what to do," said Wanjiku, with her two daughters, 11-year-old daughter Joy Wamboi and Angelinet Wanjiru, 4, on her side.