The family of two young siblings who were murdered on the night of 4th September 2022 is still crying out for justice, more than one and a half years later.
On that fateful night, Johnson Karuga Kimani and his younger brother, Kelvin Kimani, left their rented house at Kamulu to watch a football match at Top 5, a popular club in Joska. Based on evidence obtained from the club’s CCTV cameras, the brothers calmly followed the proceedings of the match, paid their bills, and left the club after the game had ended. This was the last time they would be seen alive. Their lifeless bodies, bearing injuries, would be discovered about 7 hours later next to Joska bridge, a few metres from the club. The post-mortem results indicated they had suffered severe multiple injuries on the head and legs, and that the injuries could have been inflicted by a blunt object. The bodies also bore some tyre marks, suggesting they had also been run over by a vehicle.
Until the time of his death, Kelvin Kimani (or Kim as he was popularly known) had been working as a hardware attendant in Kamulu, while Karuga had come down to visit him from Nakuru. The following day on Monday, 5th September 2022, Kim’s employer became worried when his most trusted employee failed to report for work and could not be reached on his phone either. He sent one of his other employees to go check whether Kim was at home, but the employee found the house locked, and on enquiring from the neighbours, was told that Kim had not come home since going out the previous night.
The concern increased when Kim did not appear at work again the following day and his phone was still switched off. An employee who was dispatched to Kim’s home a second time, reported that the house was still locked with no sign that Kim had returned because even his laundry was still hung out to dry on the clothes line. It was at this point that Kim’s employer decided to contact his relatives to enquire whether they could have seen or heard from him, only to be told that no one had any idea regarding his whereabouts.
The employer decided to escalate the search to police stations starting from Kamulu to Ruai Police Station. He came to learn that the police had recovered two unidentified bodies at Joska bridge in the wee hours on the night of Sunday, 4th September. He was advised to visit the City Mortuary to confirm if Kim could be one of the bodies they had deposited there. Kim’s relatives had joined in the search by this time and they were devastated and grief-stricken after seeing the two bodies of their sons at the morgue. The shock was compounded by the fact that they were unaware Karuga had been together with his brother the previous weekend.
Since then, it’s been a long and tortuous journey of trying to seek justice for the family. They believe there was negligence on the part of the initial investigating officer, who they claim did not take much interest in investigating the murders. The family also accuses him of failing to secure crucial forensic evidence from the scene of crime. Among items recovered from the scene were some cash, a bottle of alcohol, and the boys’ phones, which were found in pieces.
Through the intervention of a human rights activist, the family filed a complaint with the Internal Affairs Unit (IAU) against the Ruai DCIO. The IAU, through the Head of Complaints at DCI headquarters, requested for the file to be reopened and ordered that the matter be investigated with more seriousness. The new Rùai DCIO, Ms. Dorcas Simalo, took over the matter and fresh investigations have commenced.
The family, through the mother of the slain boys, Ms. Wambui Gathoni, is appealing to anyone with information that could help unravel the mystery and the motive behind the brutal murder of her two sons, to pass it on to the DCI office in Ruai. The pain she has had to bear after losing both of her sons in the most tragic manner is clearly etched on her face as she says amid sobs, “Heri wangeniachia tu mmoja”. (I wish they had left me with at least one son).
