A family in Gatundu South has yet to come to terms with the death of their son, who was allegedly murdered at the National Youth Service in Yatta subcounty, Machakos county.
The body of Simon Ng’ang’a, 22, was discovered by a night guard on Saturday last week in a private farm in Kithimani location. It was a few metres from the camp where he has been stationed since February this year.
He was in full NYS uniform-a green and brown NYS shirt, brown belt, green trousers, black and green shoes and black socks.
His distraught mother Cecilia Wanjiru could not hold back her tears as she narrated how the news of her only son's death was relayed to her.
She said she received a call on Saturday morning and the caller informed her that Ng’ang’a had died.
“The caller told me that my son had been missing for two days and that I should visit the camp immediately. My instincts, however, disagreed with the information and I asked the caller to come clean on what was going on. He told me that my son was dead,” she said.
Wanjiru said she gathered courage and went to the camp accompanied by her daughter, Joyce Muthoni.
But on arriving at the camp, the person whom they were directed to speak to was rude to them when they enquired circumstances surrounding the disappearance and death of Ng'anga, the mother said.
“Instead of condoling with us, he became so rude and this raised suspicions on the information they were giving us. He changed the narrative that my son was missing for two days and told us that he went missing on Friday," Wanjiru said.
"Then another commander came and told us that he went missing on Friday night, the same night he was dumped at the farm. There are so many gaps in what they are telling us.”
She said the contradicting versions by the NYS officials were suspicious and she fears her son might have been murdered within the NYS premises and his body later dumped at night in the private farm.
“The night guard who discovered my son’s body had indicated to police officers that two men who were donning NYS uniforms dragged Ng’ang’a to the farm at night but escaped when he flashed them with a torch,” Wanjiru said.
His sister Muthoni said the NYS officials had told them that Ng’ang’a’s body had no visible marks of aggression but upon viewing the body at Mbaku Funeral Home in Matuu, he seemed to have been strangled as he had visible marks around the neck.
He was also bleeding from the ears and he seemed to have been hit on the head with a blunt object.
“The misinformation from NYS is the reason we believe they are hiding something from us. It is as if they know what transpired,” she said.
A postmortem conducted on Wednesday at Mbaku Funeral Home by Dr Bosire, indicated that Ng’ang’a died due to neck compression due to manual strangulation and head injury due to blunt force trauma.
Nancy Wairimu, Ng’ang’a’s aunt, told journalists that her nephew was brought up as an obedient, hardworking and peace-loving boy and that he was always striving to make it in life to help his struggling parents.
“Being the only son, the family had high hopes that he would succeed and help his parents better their living standards. We are in pain for losing such a promising innocent man who had a great future ahead of him,” Wairimu said.
The family now wants the government to intervene and ensure justice for their son is achieved.
“We want the matter thoroughly investigated and those who took our boy’s life be apprehended and brought to justice,” Wairimu said.
Yatta subcounty DCIO Bernard Rono said investigations into the murder have been launched and two suspects are in police custody.
“Investigations are at a very advanced stage and we have arrested two suspects and we hope to bring to book four more suspects by next week and complete the investigations. I want to assure the family that they will get justice for their son,” Rono said on the phone.
Ng'ang'a will be buried at their home in Gatundu on Friday.
