Three held over blogger's killing five months ago

Augustus Mutuku, an economist-turned-political blogger in Kibwezi East Constituency, was attacked on February 2. [Courtesy]

When her boyfriend called her five months ago saying he was on his way home, Faith Wambua waited for him to arrive.

Minutes turned into hours and blogger Augustus Mutuku never returned.

The next she heard of her lover was that he had been rushed to Shalom Community Hospital. His condition worsened and the blogger died.

That was five months ago but all those memories flooded back this weekend when the Directorate of Criminal Investigations announced that they had made a breakthrough in the case. 

Mutuku, an economist-turned-political blogger in Kibwezi East Constituency was attacked on February 2 in  Mlolongo town and later succumbed to the injuries.

After months of trying to unravel the truth, detectives from the Serious Crimes Unit announced that they had arrested three people: Amos Ngumbi Kyondu who is eyeing Kibwezi East MP parliamentary seat, Abdullahi Wako alias “Moha” attached to the Critical Infrastructure Protection Unit (CIPU) based in Kitengela and Abed Musembi, an employee of Kenya Power, in connection with the death of Mutuku. 

A notice posted on the DCI’s social media platform added: “Homicide detectives who have been investigating the matter have so far arrested the three suspects, for being persons of interest in the murder.”

Following the arrests, The Sunday Standard traced some of the witnesses to rehash the events of that night.

On the day he died, Mutuku was in the company of Charles Mulei, a student at KCA University, Kitengela, and another friend, George Mutisya.

“We were in a lift inside Signature Mall in Mlolongo town when somebody called Mutuku.

"The caller insisted on a meeting at Club DK to have a drink so that they could mend fences. Mutuku asked me to accompany him,” Mulei said

On the way, they were joined by Mutisya. After meeting the caller at the club, Mutisya left.

"Some minutes past 7pm, Mulei said that the host demanded he be left alone with Mutuku.

The two had been close but had fallen out and the host wanted to square out some issues. At first, Mulei was hesitant.

“The caller didn’t want me in that meeting. At some point, Mutuku sent me a text message asking me to excuse them.

"I questioned why he (Mutuku) could go to the house of the person who was then unknown in Kitengela,” Mulei told The Sunday Standard.

The host told him not to worry as he would give him a lift home, since he lived about 200 metres away.

The following day, when Mulei passed by Mutuku’s house to pick up some books he had left there, he found Mutuku's girlfriend, Faith, in distress.

Emergency wing

“Faith was alone. She told me that Mutuku had called at around midnight informing her that he would be in the house within 10 minutes. But he never showed up,” said Mulei

When Mutuku called the man who had offered to give his friend a lift home, he claimed that he had left Mutuku at the club.

Later, Faith received a call from Shalom Hospital at around noon informing her that Mutuku was at the hospital’s emergency wing.

On reaching the facility, she found Mutuku with stab wounds on his back. 

The blogger’s elder brother, Patrick Mwanthi, said the hospital had informed them that Mutuku had been brought by Good Samaritans.

However, CCTV footage obtained at the hospital showed he had been dropped by four men in a vehicle belonging to an administrator.

Mutuku was discharged the same day, and due to fears that his attackers may want to harm him again, Mwanthi took his brother to his home in Donholm.

“We tried asking him what had transpired but he could not remember anything.

"The following day, his condition worsened and we took him to Metropolitan Hospital where he was pronounced dead on arrival,” said Mwanthi.

Back at the club, a security guard told the family that Mutuku and his caller had a confrontation around 11.45pm before his companion drove away.

However, while the guard was in the process of locating a motorbike to take Mutuku home, another car drove by and the occupants of the car attacked the blogger, leaving him groaning on the ground. 

Homicide detectives say they narrowed down their investigations to the three following the political fallout with the deceased.

A postmortem report showed that he died due to internal bleeding.