When love for school cuts deep, curious case of life-long student

Lloyd Abednego Mogoi alias Gamaliel Isaac Mogoi in a past photo. Mogoi has been charged with several offences at the Kikuyu Law courts including impersonation.

In January 2020, Gamaliel Isaac Mogoi reported to the Alliance High School powered by the hope that burnt in the hearts of the hundreds of Form One students that had been selected to join the school from across the nation.

Behind the gates of the school lay drive and belief held onto by school administrators that at the very least, alumni of the institution will, after four years of instruction, leave with a strong will to serve.

When he walked in, he got into the long driveway lined with jacaranda trees and up a small hill. He was mesmerised by the imposing administration block. Across him were the field, the Carrey Francis Memorial Lecture Centre, and the school chapel.

Like the other boys, he was told to look at a list that had his name, class and his admission number.

At 4pm, a guardian, a class ahead of him, picked him up from class to show him around.

That night, Gamaliel lay awake in his bed at Githaiga House, marvelling at how brilliant he was to play the system and get admitted into one of the most prestigious schools in the country.

Fake ID, fake relative

As he pulled the covers at lights out at around 10pm, only he knew the secret that he carried.

Gamaliel was not his name.

Plus, he was old enough to be a parent to some of the boys he had stood in line with at supper time.

When drifting off to sleep later, he hoped the secret would never come out. This was the third secondary school he had been admitted into. The name on his student ID was fake.

The person who checked him in was not a relative as he had presented.

For him, the only thing that mattered was getting things done his way.

On March 1, journalists, lawyers and ordinary folk milled around the Kikuyu Law Courts. The journalists were hungry for something worth reporting on.

The lawyers were lobbying for their matter to be heard in good time.

Rumours were going around the courtyard that a student from Alliance would be arraigned for a bail hearing.

Not many people knew what the case was about. Some thought the student had run afoul of the administration which wanted to ‘get him.’ Some thought he had been involved in some disciplinary matter.

The details existed only in a two-page charge sheet drawn on February 2 that contained four counts.

Lloyd Abednego Mogoi, alias Gamaliel Isaac Mogoi, on diverse dates between October 28, 2020, and November 8, 2021, jointly with others not before the court, being a form one student at Alliance printed the words, “Alliance High School Strong to Serve, you gave us a deceptive and corrupt principal, kindly take him back.

“School bus, chapel, badge support and Form I intake bribery.”

The words implied he was or might be trying to lead the students to damage or burn the school. The words were printed in a season of school fires and strikes around the country. It was the first count.

The other three counts painted a more vivid picture of who Mogoi was, or whom he led others to believe he was.

When he walked into the school in Kikuyu, he might have relived his experience from January 2004 when he walked into Mutuini High School in Dagoretti. The previous year, he had sat his KCPE exam and got admitted to Mutuini.

For the next three years, he was a diligent student, impressing the teachers and students alike. He was fondly referred to as Abedi.

By the time he got to Form III, the popularity had started to wane. He left the school and sought admission to another school.

From Dagoretti, he enrolled at Dr Ribeiro Parklands Boys High School. Upon admission, he gave the reason for transfer as difficulty in paying fees. Here, agreeing to go back a year, he re-enrolled at Form III.

The following year, in 2008, he sat his Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education exam and scored a mean grade of B with 65 points. This, it seems was not enough for him and instead of accepting his admission to the Technical University of Kenya to pursue a degree in Land Survey, he opted to re-sit the exam.

Admitted at Egerton

In 2009, buoyed by the familiarity of the previous year’s exam, he improved his grade to a B+ of 72 points.

This secured him a place at Egerton University where he pursued a Bachelor of Science in Instrumentation and Control Engineering under a scholarship by KenGen. Things did not go as Lloyd had hoped.

By the third year, in 2011, the demands of academic life were getting to him, so he deferred a semester in his fourth year.

It was two years before he went back to university to try and finish his coursework. In 2015, however, towards the end of his five-year course, he left and never went back.

He cut everyone off, including his sponsors.

The second count on his charge sheet points not just to where Mogoi was when he fell off the radar from Egerton University but it also indicates what he might have been up to. And what the next phase of his life would be.

In 2018, close to three years after he packed up and left university, Mogoi, then 27 years old, walked into the Kisii Central Registration of Persons Office. The claim he made was plausible. He had lost a birth certificate and needed one as a replacement.

“Knowingly and with intent, you made a false statement to the effect that you were issued with a birth certificate No. A0541522 in the name of Gamaliel Isaac Mogoi, knowing that you had previously been issued with national Identity Card No.29115190 in the name of Lloyd Abednego Mogoi,” reads the second count.

Effectively, Lloyd Abednego Mogoi, fondly referred to as Abedi at Mutuini Boys had created an alter ego. Armed with the birth certificate, he left Kisii County and travelled to Kiambu County for another stab at education.

At 27, and now going by the name Gamaliel Isaac Mogoi, he enrolled at Gachororo Primary School in Juja in Standard Seven. He explained that due to fee constraints, he had been unable to pursue education further than that.

Top performer

For the two years he was at Gachororo he was a star student. So trusted was he that when not in the class preparing for the KCPE exam, he would often sneak into the secondary school section to tutor Form Four students in Mathematics and Geography.

As expected, he was among the top performers in the school, getting 410 marks out of the possible 500. He earned a spot at Alliance High School.

And here lies the third offence on the charge sheet: “Obtaining registration by false pretence,” the charge sheet reads.

“In 2019, at Gachororo Primary School within Kiambi County, wilfully procured yourself a registration of Kenya Certificate of Primary Education certificate number 6764496 in the name of Mogoi Gamaliel Isaac by falsely pretending that your name was Mogoi Gamaliel Isaac instead of Lloyd Abednego Mogoi as per your national ID card.

Gamaliel’s last day at Alliance may point to what he was thinking of during that first night. In a bid to fit in, he could have been feigning excitement and anxiety perhaps with a tinge of homesickness.

He is said to have been inciting other students, which led the school to try to understand his background and the truth started coming out.

Investigators say throughout his life, a web of untruths surrounded him. Some of them, are a matter of life and death.

On July 29, 2020, a post made rounds on the Mutuini High School Facebook page. An alumnus of the school had some devastating news for the Class of 2007.

A direct message to his inbox from Mogoi’s Facebook account said Mogoi passed away the previous day. 

“It is with great sadness that I announce the passing of my brother and confidant Mr. Lloyd Abednego Mogoi. He died last night at Modern Hospital, Juja, as a result of diabetes and a failing heart.

“We are saddened and shocked at his passing. To lose a brother we have relied on for so long is devastating… many of you have reached out to find out how you can help my family during this time…we would appreciate monetary donations to help pay for funeral expenses.”

Mourning the dead?

The grief on the Mutuini High School Facebook was palpable.

But those who received the message said there was no further information on the death.

However, there was an attached phone number through which wellwishers could send money.
It was registered to Lloyd Mogoi.

While the Mutuini community mourned in different ways, Mogoi was in Githaiga House, probably following the conversation.

Now, he remains in remand, awaiting a bail hearing.

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