Intrigues into City Hall conspiracy to defraud the dead

From left: Alexander Musee , Mary Ngethe, former Nairobi City Council Town Clerk John Gakuuo and former Local Government Permanent Secretary Samy Kirui were jailed for 3 years each for defrauding the defunct council off Sh283 million in cemetery land scandal. [George Njunge, Standard]

On October 6, 2009 City Mortuary’s senior funeral superintendent David Wanjohi was summoned by a committee tasked to assess whether his clients, the dead, would be happy with a parcel of land in Mavoko.

The backstory to this meeting might have been macabre, but for the few privy to the goings on in Nairobi’s seat of power, the resolutions to this meeting would be life changing, and form the basis of an investigation that would eventually lead to the imprisonment of senior officials over their role in what morphed into one of the biggest scandals to hit Kenya’s capital city.