When Moses Macua, 52, went to a Ruiru club to have his favourite drink, he was optimistic he would thereafter go home to spend time with his family as was the norm.
However, that was never to be, as he would later pick an argument with a butcher over a Sh950 meat bill that would abruptly cut short his life.
Macua (pictured right), a tycoon from Ndumberi, Kiambu with vast investments in real estate and transport sector was a frequent reveller to The Backyard.
He is said to have flats in Nairobi’s central business district, Kariobangi, Umoja and Ruiru, among other areas.
Kanyingi Kamau, the club owner and a close friend to the slain tycoon, said he found him seated in his usual place in the company of a friend.
“I joined them and offered him a drink but he declined. I left shortly thereafter to run some errands and came back at 9.30pm and still found him drinking. I ordered a drink for myself and him. We talked politics and many other things as we drunk. He was quite jovial,” Mr Kanyingi said.
At about 11pm, a butcher came to Macua’s table to remind him to clear his bill since they were closing for the day. Minutes later the tycoon went to clear the bill at the butchery and that is when all hell broke loose.
It is alleged that the deceased got angry when the butcher asked him to also foot a pending Sh500 bill incurred by his brother, who was also a frequent customer in the club.
“He got angry when my colleague asked him to pay the money and macua told him to go and ask for it from his mother. My fellow butcher told him he felt offended by his remarks. The deceased punched him on the face and this is when, in anger, he picked up a knife and stabbed him,” said Patrick Karenge, a butcher at the club.
Macua was stabbed in the right side of the chest.
However, Josephat Waithaka, the slain tycoon’s brother who is said to have had a pending bill at the butchery, dismissed the allegations, terming them as unfounded propaganda.
“The last time that I visited that club was in April this year and I did not leave any pending bill. I am calling for justice for my brother to be done by ensuring all those who may have been involved in his death are brought to book,” Mr Waithaka told The Standard.
He said he was with his late brother that morning, adding that he was elated because he was going to break ground for the construction of two flats in Ruiru and Juja towns the following day.
REPORT FIRST
Kanyingi said on hearing the commotion at the butchery, he went to check what was going on, only for his friend to beg him to rush him to the hospital since he had been stabbed by his butcher.
But it is the decision by the club owner to first take Macua, who was bleeding profusely, to Ruiru police station instead of first rushing him to hospital that has angered family members.
Kanyingi told The Standard that he just got confused and decided to first go to the police station to report the matter first.
On reaching the station, police officers on duty ordered he be rushed to the nearby Ruiru Level Four Hospital where he was pronounced dead.
Controversy has also emerged over whether Macua was really dead by the time he reached the hospital.
While doctors at the hospital insist he was dead by the time he was brought in, some family members claim they found him still alive when they arrived an hour after he was taken there.
“We found my dad lying on a stretcher at the hospital and he was alive. He was breathing and struggling to talk. He was not dead. We are wondering why his life was not saved. We suspect someone just wanted to see him die,” said Eleanor Macua.
According to post-mortem results, Macua died as a result of excessive bleeding. Ruiru Officer Commanding Police Division Isaac Thuranira told The Standard they are tracking the suspect. He said investigations to ascertain the tycoon’s real cause of death were ongoing.
