Before May 27, the families of Charles Mwangi and Ibrahim Wanyoike, whose bodies were discovered in a stolen car in Nairobi’s Lucky Summer estate, neither knew each other nor shared anything in common.
It is in death that their shared commonality emerged, as it dawned on the families that their bread winners were bound by their love for cars. Yet, in their shared love for cars, death lurked.
The duo lived different lives but shared a lot in common. They were both driven by the desire to fend for their families, even as the love for cars brought them together. And it is this love that could have led to their murder.
Their bodies were discovered on the back seat of a stolen vehicle. Who could have wanted the two dead?
The two bodies were taken to the City mortuary for autopsy and identification.
The post-mortem exam, which the Nation has seen, revealed that Mr Wanyoike, 48, was strangled to death while Mr Mwangi, 43, died of a head injury due to blunt force trauma. Even with this close bond, they lived on the opposite ends of the city. Ibrahim stayed in Uthiru estate while Charles stayed in Kariobangi South.
Freelance mechanic
In their sunset days, neither of their families sensed anything amiss until they ceased to be. To them, Mr Mwangi was a “freelance mechanic” and little is known about his exact workplace.
He was a single parent of two daughters, with Juliet Wanjiru Gituro, 21, his first born. After a week of waiting for her father’s call, she started to get worried.
When the caretaker, who was also her father’s next door neighbour, called her, she decided to reach out to her extended family to see if any of them had seen or talked to her father recently.
“We were worried, it was scary but we opted to go straight to City Mortuary after we searched for him in vain. Had we not found him there, our next plan was to search for him in hospitals. We opted for the mortuary because I knew something was wrong but I never wanted to find him there,” Ms Wanjiru said.
She added: “When we reached the mortuary, I saw him lying there lifeless. I had mixed emotions running in my mind. I wanted to wake him up. I screamed. My father usually wears his mechanic’s apron but on that day he did not have it on.”
Then it dawned on her that he was no more.
“The last time I talked to him was on May 18. By May 25, I was worried because he calls me often but that whole week passed without his call,” Ms Wanjiru said. “My father was a mechanic. He did not have a specific place where he used to make the cars.”
The daunting reality sank further, but watching the remains of her father at the morgue has scarred her forever.
“I know my father was a good a man. He did not deserve to die like that. Even if he had wronged anyone, he did not deserve to die such cruel and painful death,” Ms Wanjiru said.
With her father’s sudden demise, Ms Wanjiru said she is forced to step up to be the family’s breadwinner.
Businessman
Mr Wanyoike, on the other hand, was a businessman who had tried his hands on the taxi business as a driver. He was known for his banana business in Nairobi’s Kangemi market. His son James Ndung’u, the first born in a family of six —three sons and one daughter — mourned his father as a hard-working man, who provided diligently for the family.
The last time his son saw him was on Monday in Kangemi. He, however, did not know that would be the last time he was seeing him alive. Mr Ndung’u says his father went missing on May 25, two days before they discovered him dead.
Between Tuesday and Friday when he was found, Mr Wanyoike’s phone was on yet it wasn’t being picked.
He had ordered bananas from Meru and his business partner was calling to notify him that the goods were on transit but he was unreachable.
Once the goods were in Nairobi, he was to foot the transportation cost.
At first, there were no signs that something was amiss and the family thought their breadwinner would resurface. But as days went by, the family grew worried. “He is not known to ignore his calls,” his son recalled.
“Mum, dad, and I own shops in the same area. My mum sells chicken, while my dad sold bananas. We had to foot the bills, because we knew once dad returns, he would give us back the money,” his son said. That was the first red flag. But when a relative visited their upcountry home and never found him, it became apparent that something was definitely wrong.
And, Mr Ndung’u travelled upcountry just to confirm, if nothing else, his fears. It was unlikely of him to travel home and go silent, his son said.
On reaching home, he recounted, he found the door open, his father’s phone and keys were on the table, and beneath were the pair of shoes he frequently wore. And that was not normal.
He told his mother about what he had seen and reported the matter to Nguruini Police Post, which filed a missing person report under OB 02/27/05/2022.
“It is at that moment that it hit me that something was wrong. That was the beginning of a serious, frantic search.”
A few hours later, he was found dead at City Mortuary.
“He was cold and his warm smile had faded.”
“I identified him by the shirt and the trouser he had. He was barefoot. He had a wound in his head and on his left foot. I hoped we would find him alive. I just thought that maybe he was on some business deal, and as soon as it was done, he would return home. I was crushed to see him lifeless in the mortuary,” Mr Ndungu said. James remembers his father as quiet, not-so-chatty but genuinely loving.
He was always jovial, easy, and entrepreneurial.
“He had many friends,” his son recalls.
Banana business
Of the many friends he had, several of whom they did not know, one was the mechanic with whom they were found strangled.
“Whenever we had a son-father moment, he always guided me on life issues. He advised me that life can never be scripted,” he recounted.
The job that sustained their family, James said, was the banana business.
Before his father ventured into the banana trade, he, together with his brother and cousin were into taxi business.
Sadly, his brother and cousin were killed five years ago, under mysterious circumstances while working in the taxi business.
That is when he quit his taxi job to venture into the banana business. But his love for cars remained.
He bought new cars often and disposed of them off too at the same frequency. Mr Wanyoike will be buried on June 8.
The white Toyota Vitz (KCH 715Z) was towed to Starehe Police Station. The owner initially reported it missing.
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