Questions raised over mysterious death of Youth Fund driver

Youth Fund driver Simon Mwangi who died in Kwale

New questions have emerged over the mysterious death of a Youth Enterprise Fund employee in the week that a Sh180 million scandal at the parastatal, now being investigated by Parliament, first became public.

Simon Mwangi Gathika, a 33-year-old Fund driver, was found dead in a Mombasa swimming pool on October 19 last year, minutes after emerging the best swimmer among a group of merry makers at an exclusive party in the South Coast.

He died on the weekend that the Fund’s entire board — some of whom have recently been questioned over misappropriation of cash at the Fund — were meeting at Tamarind Hotel, Mombasa. Mwangi had the responsibility of dropping the directors to their hotels.

It has now emerged that Mwangi was invited to what he portrayed as a drugs and alcohol party by a colleague at the Fund.

Among the driver’s last words to his wife by way of mobile text messages were: “Needs God’s grace, am in attendance of a pool party in Diani in somoene palatial hme.” A second message read: “The place is devaish, all drugs r used.”(sic)

Tragic evening

The Youth Fund is the subject of investigations by Parliament’s Public Investments Committee and the EACC amid revelations that CEO Catherine Namuye — who has since been suspended — authorised the irregular withdrawal of Sh180 million from the Fund’s bank account.

The Standard on Sunday has obtained a private investigator’s report that was commissioned by the Fund’s secretariat through the law firm of Morara Apiemi & Nyangito Advocate, ostensibly to shed light on the death of Mwangi, who used to interact with the Fund’s managers and directors.

Its account of the tragic evening partly focuses on Fund director Clement Ayugo (pictured below), Nairobi  University student leader Babu Owino and businessman Steve Mbogo, all of whom were with Mwangi at the South Coast party. Mbogo, a controversial figure on social media, once declared himself a billionaire, drawing ridicule from people who claimed he was not even a millionaire.

Questions have been raised about the glaring gaps in the private investigator’s report, the information it presents and why it was commissioned.

The events leading to Mwangi’s death began on October 18, a Sunday, when he drove to Mombasa Club where Ayugo was putting up. Together with another director Ms Sabra Omar, the three sat at the club and had supper. At 10pm Mwangi dropped Ms Omar in Tudor where she was staying.

Mwangi then drove Ayugo across the island to Likoni, dropping him at Corner Mtongwe. Ayugo then took a taxi which dropped him at Kivulini Cottages, South Coast where Mbogo was hosting a party attended by Owino and others.

About 2am, the report by Frenix Assessors says, Mwangi showed up at the party venue in his officially assigned car and was welcomed by his boss, Ayugo. The report says the young man started taking white wine before majority of the merry-makers, him included, decided to swim.

Mwangi was declared by fellow guests the “best swimmer” and “the most celebrated” in the group. Yet after 4:30am, the man whose swimming skills had been openly praised by his colleagues was found virtually dead in the same pool in which he had emerged winner a few hours earlier.

Although the death has been treated by the Fund bosses and the police as having been caused by drowning, questions have been raised about how he met his fate. Was he disabled by a malfunctioning of his limbs — such as a cramp — while he was in the water? Or was he overpowered and strangled before being thrown back into the water?

A post-mortem report by Dr Ng’ali Mbuuko noted that Mwangi had a 4cmx2.5cm bruise on the “galeae surface of the left occipital scalp” and went on to declare the cause of death as “asphyxia due to drowning”.

The private investigators, after reviewing the pathologist’s report, concluded: “We opined that to result to drowning (sic), the deceased may have developed muscle pull or some other complication while in the swimming pool.”

The investigators say Fund director Ayugo told them that after he retired to his room he went back to the pool to retrieve a phone and “noticed someone lying under the water. He dived to rescue him only to find it was Simon Mwangi”.

Glaring gaps

Ayugo , according to the report, called the host, Mr Mbogo, to assist him and together they pulled out the unconscious Mwangi from the swimming pool. “ He was visibly in bad shape having taken in a lot of water,” the report says.

Mwangi was rushed to Diani Beach Hospital where he was pronounced dead on arrival.

Joseph Busolo, a caretaker at Kivulini Cottages, told the investigators that Mbogo had rented the cottage for three days with nine guests. The swimming pool, he said, was not normally used at night as there were no pool attendants at that time. Busolo said the cottages did not allow non-guests in the swimming pool.

The report says student leader Babu Owino spoke little about the drowning, saying he did not know how to swim and so had not entered the pool.

The investigators then go on to absolve Ayugo and his friends of “any deliberate act in the death of Mwangi”. They assign blame to the cottages management for failing to ensure the safety of guests and their invitees “more so that the facilities had been paid for by primary host Mr Steve Mbogo”.

The report, dated November 23, 2015, is signed by a “B. Mutua”, the operations manager/investigator at Frenix Assessors and F. M. Musyoka, a “principal officer” at the same organisation. But Mwangi’s friends point at glaring gaps in the report, which was commissioned by the board of which Ayuga was a member. Some of them are as follows:

- Between 7pm and 10pm, Mwangi met and dined with two directors—Ayugo and Ms Omar. What was the nature of their discussions?

- What prompted Mwangi to join Ayugo and his partying colleagues in the wee hours of the morning? Did Ayugo invite him and if so, why didn’t the investigators categorically state so?

- The cottage said non-guests were not allowed in the swimming area. How was it that a stranger whose only acquaintance at the party was his boss arrived at a party and an hour later went swimming with people he had just met?

- How is it that Mwangi was left at the pool alone and how is it that the best swimmer of the night ended up drowning? Where did the investigators get the theory of “muscle pull”?

-  Who was the last person to communicate with Mwangi? Who communicated with him that fateful night and what was the nature of the communication?

-  What are the identities of the rest of the group “numbering about fifteen” at the party besides Ayugo, Mbogo and Owino? What was their testimony on the events of the night?

Mwangi’s widow, Anne, contacted by The Standard on Sunday, asked why her husband had to be called to work past midnight.

“Are government drivers paid to wait as their bosses drink and make merry?” she asked. “My husband met his death when he shouldn’t have been on duty. He should have been next to me, asleep.”