Samuel Mugota: Wife reveals puzzling details of man shot dead at Mirema

Police officers at the scene in Mirema, Kasarani where Samuel Mugota, 40, was shot dead by an unknown assailant on May 16, 2022. [Standard]

In her marriage that lasted more than ten years, Winnie Wambui, the wife of Mirema Drive murder victim, Samuel Mugota, says she never knew even one of her spouse’s friends.

So secretive was Mugota, 40, that Wambui couldn’t crack the nature of his job.

“When we met, he told me that he was a former police officer. However, I never got to see any pictures of him in police uniform, or at his workstation,” Wambui, 34, said in her police report filed at the Kasarani Police Station.

According to her, she never took interest in knowing more about Mugota’s professional life because “he was a man of few words, and never wanted to be asked the same question more than once”.

“I knew little about his work life. However, I remember him telling me that he bought and sold land after quitting the police service,” said Wambui, in her report seen by The Standard.

Another report by Mugota’s younger brother stated that the deceased was an ICT professional.

Mugota and his wife, Wambui, lived on Kenyatta Road, Kiambu County, where the deceased had built a matrimonial home.

On Mugota’s character, Wambui said he was a good provider, who hardly spent a night away from home.

“He was secretive; I never knew any of his friends. However, he used to receive numerous calls from women. I couldn’t ask him who they were because he detested being questioned,” said Wambui.

Mugota never took alcohol, never smoked, and never allowed his wife to call or text him, the police statement said.

“From the word go, he set the rule that I should never call him when he was away from home. He used to say: ‘nikikutaka, nitakutafuta (When I need you, I’ll call you),” she said.

On Monday, May 16, Mugota was shot six times after dropping a friend at Mirema Drive in Kasarani, Nairobi County.

The victim died on the spot. His killer, a solo gunman, is yet to be tracked down, police said.

Mugota’s widow, Wambui, said on the fateful day, she received a call from a man who introduced himself as her husband’s friend.

“He told me that my spouse had been arrested, and that his car had been traced to Roysambu. Immediately, I tried calling my husband, but his phone wasn’t going through. That was the first day in a very long while that I initiated a call to him. Remember he’d set a rule that I should never call him when he was away from home.”

Wambui recounted her husband’s last moments while at home.

“He woke up, took breakfast and drove out at 8am. I saw him speaking to boda boda operators near our home, and thereafter drove off,” she said.

Wambui, who had three children with Mugota, said she knew she was the deceased’s second wife.

“I know that he had another wife, whose name is Ruth Kamene. Ruth and Mugota had three children,” she said.

Wambui further said in her statement: “I knew my place in the marriage, and I was okay with it.”

The couple also had another house at Mugota’s rural home near Kasarani Sports View Hotel in Laikipia East Sub-County.

Wambui told police that her spouse never exhibited signs of a man who was fearing for his life.

“He’d however told me that he was facing financial problems, and was planning to sell one of his cars to remain financially afloat.”

Mugota’s other alleged spouse, Ruth Kamene who hails from Machakos, is yet to record a police statement.

Mugota, a father of seven, including a child sired with a third woman besides his wives, will be buried next week in Laikipia East.

His body, which had initially been taken to City Mortuary, was moved to Montezuma Monalisa Funeral Home in Kabati, Murang’a County.

Postmortem indicated that Mugota succumbed to gunshot wounds to the chest.

How Mugota was killed

It appears that the killer of Samuel Mugota knew his movement pattern or daytime diary, given the nature of how his murder was executed in cold blood.

CCTV footage that The Standard obtained showed a man, who was armed with a firearm, waiting for Mugota to drive towards a stretch that appeared to be familiar to them before he attacked.

The victim was killed at Mirema Drive in Kasarani Sub-County, Nairobi County.

Waiting on the roadside, the killer, who had already cocked his rifle, approached Mugota when the victim’s vehicle, a Honda CR-V, drew closer.

At exactly 1:57pm, the attacker aimed at Mugota, who was on the driver’s seat, and opened fire, shooting him six times at close range.

All this while, a saloon car was waiting on an adjacent road for Mugota’s attacker to complete the execution so that they could speed off.

A woman, who was walking past the scene, had to quickly change direction and run to safety as the gunshots rang out.

Mugota had reportedly dropped a friend at Mirema Drive, when his assailant, who was trailing him in another vehicle, fatally shot him.

The victim died on the spot in his Honda CR-V.

Vincent Kipkorir, the Kasarani Directorate of Criminal Investigations Officer (DCIO), told The Standard that investigations into Mugota’s death had commenced, with police seeking eyewitnesses’ accounts and CCTV recordings to unravel the murder.