The unanswered questions in the mysterious death of JEFF MWATHI – Who is protecting his alleged killers?

By EPHRAIM NJENGA

This case regarding the murder of Jeff Mwathi is very intriguing. I have spent a lot of time reading and watching videos about the story. I have watched the victim’s parents and the girlfriend narrate their side of the story. I have read and watched a lot of analysis on the issue.

This is by all means a straightforward case. The venue, time and suspects are all known. Yet over 20 days later no one has been arrested. This is what I find intriguing.

The pain the parents are going through is heartbreaking. It is a shame that the DCI is yet to update the family or the country on the progress of the investigations. How heavy are these stones that can’t be turned even after all the public outcry?

Even without the investigative assets the DCI has, there are conclusions one can make about the case which appear all too obvious.

1. It is clear that the police who initially handled the case did not do a professional job. One would have expected the scene of crime to have been secured. Neighbours ought to have been questioned regarding what they saw or heard. It is unbelievable that the body of the victim was booked at city mortuary as that of an “Unidentified male”.

This doesn’t make any sense because it is said that when the DJ returned home early that morning at around 9 AM he saw the body of the victim lying on the ground surrounded by a crowd. Even if we are to assume he did not identify it as that of the victim, he could easily have connected the dots given that at that time the victim was missing.

When something that serious happens in a building, everyone would have been called out to identify the victim.

Available evidence is that the windows on the side of the building the body fell from were closed. The caretaker went knocking on the houses on that side to find out if anyone had fallen down and all were opened except that of the DJ. Why wasn’t this followed up?

2. The allegations of suicide are absurd. Immediately after the body fell, it is said the windows were closed, then it is impossible for the deceased to have jumped out of a window and close the window afterwards. Furthermore, the victim had not expressed any distress in the hours prior to his death. In fact, in recorded voice conversations with the mother he sounded full of life and looking forward to doing the job he had apparently been given by the DJ.

The window the victim is said to have fallen from has grills and one would really need to squeeze himself out. This would take time giving those with him sufficient opportunity to save him from falling.

Why did one of the suspects call the victim’s girlfriend claiming that the victim had tried to commit suicide in 2019? Yet the family denies that nothing like that ever happened. Why the obsession with pushing the suicide theory? If indeed it was suicide, then this justification wouldn’t have been necessary.

3. The other question is whether the victim fell out dead or alive. The first thing which comes to mind is that if he was pushed out alive, then there would have been a commotion and screaming. Given it was in the dead of the night, this would have woken people up.

All evidence points towards the possibility that the victim died in the house. The body was probably thrown off the balcony. It is highly likely that all the suspects were in the house at the point of the death. The departure by some of the suspects was just a way of creating an alibi.

Two of the suspects went to the ground floor and were seen surveying the site where the body fell. They then go up and 7 minutes later the body falls to the site where the suspects had just surveyed. Any fool can conclude on what went on there.

While surveying the body disposal site, the suspects were seen making calls. How come no information has been revealed on the person to whom the call was placed and what the conversation was about?

4. The DJ says he went to report the case of a missing person to the police. This raises even more questions because a person cannot disappear in an apartment with just a few rooms. In any case, you don’t report a missing person to the police in a few hours without calling those close to him. Besides, the building was highly secured and no one could leave without being let out by the host. If the victim had left, the first place to confirm would have been CCTV evidence. There is also no evidence of attempting to search the victim from within the building.

5. Initially, it had been reported that the DJ met the victim for the first time when they met to discuss the interior design job. It later turned out they had known each other for about two years. What caused this discrepancy? Was there a job offer or this was just a way of luring the victim? How does a meeting to discuss work end up in a drinking spree and club hopping?

6. If this was a murder, was it premeditated or an afterthought. If you want to kill a person, it is unlikely you would do it at your house in a building full of CCTV cameras and high security.

One of the ladies who called the victim’s girlfriend explained that there was a commotion in which the victim claimed that popular Kikuyu musician Samidoh was his uncle.

This is where the crux of the matter is. One can conclude that something bad was done to the victim and he threatened to expose it thus invoking the uncle’s name. This is most likely the reason why he was killed. To silence him! For a person to be killed for threatening to expose something, it means the stakes were very high. What was at stake? Not hard to guess.

7. How come the suspects have never been arrested thus giving them sufficient time to interfere with the evidence and compromise investigations? Who is protecting the suspects and why?

8. Why were the victim’s trousers down to the knees by the time the body fell to the ground? Does this point to sexual assault? Or did the trousers pull down as the body was being thrown out?

If a person can be killed in such a manner and no one is held to account, it means that we are living in a lawless country. The time it has taken to unravel such a simple case points to breakdown of law and order. This is very dangerous for the country because it can lead to people taking the law into their own hands. The government should tread carefully because we are headed to total anarchy.

I wonder what is the value of elections in this country. Where are the politicians in this case? Where is the opposition? The impunity and disregard for life in this case is shocking and sickening.

Kenyans must rise up and ensure justice is done. No one is safe until everyone is safe. Today it is Jeff, tomorrow it can be anyone’s child. How many people must die under controversial circumstances before we say enough is enough? Jeff’s death must not be in vain. Justice must be done and be seen to be done. No other parent should ever lose their child under such circumstances.