Mchele: KDF soldier drugged to death before August wedding

 Maurine Wanjiru and the late Apollo Chumba

Maurine Wanjiru and her two kids were preparing to leave their rural Gatundu home for Nairobi on December 31 last year after Christmas festivities.

Her husband, Apollo Chumba, a KDF soldier, was to pick them. But that did not happen. Chumba was found dead in the family Probox after a night out drinking at a popular pub in Umoja.

“On 30th, we spoke for more than two hours on phone. We were planning our wedding that was scheduled for August this year,” Wanjiru said, adding that, “He took us home for Christmas and he was supposed to pick us on the day I received the news of his death.”

The mother of two children aged two and eight years, had lived in Umoja for more than five years and cases of men being drugged were common.

“It is not a pleasant experience for a woman to learn that her husband died in such circumstances - drugged in the company of another woman. But I knew and trusted him. He was not that kind of man, he was generous and would buy alcohol for his friends, but he would not cross the line with women. Maybe they thought he had a lot of money,” Wanjiru told The Nairobian.

CCTV footage from the nearby Jeska Supermarket showed that Chumba was in the company of a woman who allegedly drugged him. He was later seen being carried to his car around 7am.

In the footage, the deceased is said to have spent more than 10 hours with an unidentified woman who is seen stepping in and out of the club several times.

Wanjiru reasons that those who drugged him to death may have thought that he had money, but that was not the case “as I used to keep everything for him and he would tell me to send him some money whenever he needed anything, even a drink.”

The management of pub acknowledged that Chumba was one of their regular clients. A manager who did not want to be named said, “He used to come here often. That he was drugged by a mchele artist is mystery to us because we don’t entertain prostitutes here,” he told The Nairobian. 

The manager the pub added that, “The woman who was arrested and linked to the case was not our staff. This club has been here for ages and we have never witnessed such a case. The police can shed more light on case and determine if the soldier was drugged or not.”

 Chumba had just returned from a mission in Somalia on December 15 after a one-year assignment that saw soldiers pocket around Sh1 million in salaries and allowances.

“He left the country on December 28, 2015 and completed his tour on December 15, 2016,” she said, adding that her man was jovial upon returning.

Chumba had served with KDF for 10 years, a year shy of pension age, which has been giving the wife sleepless nights as the KDF board deliberated her case.

Chumba was buried in Kisumu on January 14. Post-mortem results are still pending.

 At least five KDF soldiers - mostly those returning from external missions - have been drugged by city women in less than a year, a detective privy to the cases told The Nairobian, a situation that is giving top army brass a headache.

“They target them because they return loaded with money. Many of them show off and invite women for merry making during their break from the battle field,” said the detective, adding that the “Umoja case was the fifth case in less than a year. Investigators and high-ranking army bosses who joined us in the probe are concerned that somebody could be colluding with prostitutes to finish their men. They think a serial killer is on the loose.”

A source at the Department of Defence (DoD) confirmed the issue, adding that the “Umoja incident was not isolated because such cases are rampant, mostly involving soldiers returning from various missions.”

However, the KDF spokesman Bogita Ongeri told The Nairobian that the force has no record of soldiers who have been drugged or died under such circumstances.

“We don’t have a record of soldiers who have been drugged. The only case I’ve heard of is the recent one in Umoja” he said.