The Directorate of Criminal Investigations will ensure killers of police officer David Gikurumi Murai are found and brought to justice.
Murai died on Thursday night at 43. He was attached to the Nyahururu police station.
“If there was foul play in his death, that is my job and I will offer you required services just like I do all over the country,” Director of Investigations Bureau John Kariuki told the family.
Kariuki spoke on Thursday during the burial of the Traffic police officer at his home in Rurii B village in Gathanji, Ol Joro Orok.
“This one for Gikurumi, my younger brother, we shall ensure it is checked with a plumb line to confirm he did not kill himself for those who could have been involved to face justice just like any other criminal,” he said.
Kariuki spoke as Murai’s family urged the DCI to conduct thorough investigations to find the killers. Murai was killed by unknown people on the night of Thursday, October 22,2020.
In the morning of Friday October 23, 2020, Selina Wambui Wangui, a woman he lived with and is referred to by the family as a "slay queen", reported at Nyahururu police station that the officer had committed suicide in their residential house on Garden Estate in Nyahururu. He met the woman about a year ago.
Police visited the scene and found the body of the deceased kneeling beside a bed with a blue lanyard rope tightly tied around his neck, with the other end on a wooden stand.
Wangui, who was in the house during the night, was taken to the Nyahururu police station for questioning.
Shocking details, however, emerged on Monday that Murai was killed. A postmortem conducted by Dr Boniface Miring’u, a government pathologist based at Nyahururu County Referral Hospital, revealed that the officer was strangled twice and poisoned. His chest had also been stepped on.
The pathologist said the murder must have been committed elsewhere but not at his bedside where the body was found, with his police whistle rope tied round his neck and tethered in his bed head.
Forensic DCI officers took some body parts for further investigation to determine the kind of poison that was administered prior to his being strangled.
In a condolence message from the Police Service, Nyahururu subcounty deputy police commander Moffat Mang’era, said Murai, whom he eulogised as energetic, royal, disciplined and devoted officer, died under unclear circumstances.
His body was found in a house he was residing in alongside “one Selina Wambui and a child with a noose around his neck”, he said.
“Investigations have been launched to establish what really transpired, prompting his death. The law will take its course immediately after the investigations,” he said.
Premonition
During the emotional sendoff, Murai’s immediate supervisor, Titus Etyang, the Nyahururu police station Traffic base commander, said Murai could have seen his death coming.
Etyang said during a meeting with his staff on October 19, the officer stood and asked for forgiveness from his workmates and said he had forgiven those who could have offended him as he was about to embark on a new journey.
“So, Murai is just having a good journey. I wish him a safe journey wherever he is going because he said 'forgive me as I am forgiving you. I am now starting a new journey',” Etyang said.
Murai had served in the service for 21 years and had 17 more years before retirement. He is survived by two daughters aged 16 and 12. His wife Eunice Wairimu died a decade ago.
Samuel Murai, the family spokesperson, said the the cop, the lastborn in a family of 10, had telephoned one of them at around 11pm before he was found dead the following morning, informing him that Wangui had locked him inside the bedroom and he could not get out to answer a call of nature.
“I want to say we are leaving it to the government to investigate. He leaves behind two young children. If it is human hand that killed him, will he raise those children? How shall we explain to them? I think that is why God lives in a hidden place because we would be camping at his dwelling asking why,” Samuel said.
James Murai said the death of their brother was like a huge bolder falling on their heads from a high place, leaving the family completely crashed.
“But there is God who sees even in secret,” he said.
