Agony of slain TV journalist’s parents as they seek answers

An early morning call on Labour Day 2011 turned the normal Sunday routine of Mombasa-based Major (rtd) John Kabiru Gitahi and his wife Agnes Njoki into an ordeal.

Almost four years after their daughter was brutally killed in her house at Nairobi’s Umoja  estate in the early hours of May 1, 2011, it is clear from the interview with Lifestyle at the couple’s home in Nyali, Mombasa, that the nightmare is far from over.

The murder took place at about the same time another event in faraway Pakistan hit world headlines: The killing of notorious Al-Qaeda boss Osama bin Laden by American special forces.

Despite the importance of bin Laden’s death, Mr Kabiru recalls that it was the murder of his daughter, Sarah Wambui Kabiru, that dominated the news headlines in Kenya for the entire week after it happened, probably because the victim was a well-known television personality.

Particularly intriguing was the fact that her partner, Moses Otieno Dola, the suspected killer and the Kabirus’ then son-in-law, had immediately gone missing, and a major manhunt had been mounted for him.

As it turned out later, Dola had travelled to his rural home in Siaya. Three days later, however, a policeman cousin of Dola’s had escorted him to Naivasha police station where he surrendered himself and was transferred to Buru Buru police station in Nairobi.

The stage was set for one of the most publicised murder trials in Kenya, and Dola was soon taken to court and charged with the murder of his wife — a case that is still going on after the accused pleaded not guilty.

Not surprisingly, at times Mrs Kabiru has been unable to bear the stress, as happened during her daughter’s funeral at Nairobi’s Lang’ata cemetery on May 7, 2011, when she collapsed before she could lay a wreath. She was rushed to the Karen Hospital, where she spent two days.

Taken ill again

Not long afterwards, her nerves caved in again when she visited her late daughter’s house in Umoja to sort out and collect her belongings, and she was again suddenly taken ill.

She ended up spending a week at Nairobi’s Mater Hospital. “I was confused and I’m still confused,” she told Lifestyle this week. “The horrible developments were just too much for me.”

For Mr Kabiru, the loss was even more painful as he had a special connection with his daughter — he acted as a midwife during the delivery of their baby girl under the direction of his wife, when Wambui was prematurely born at his home in Subukia on December 25, 1983.

“I thought it was all a bad joke and still keep feeling my daughter Wambui will come back again,” he says wistfully, adding that he still senses her presence in the house.

Beyond the tragic circumstances, there has been no shortage of drama in the case.

For instance, as the matter progressed, Dola would skip court on December 31, 2013 for the mention of the case, and also on January 6, 2014, prompting a warrant of arrest to be issued.

Through the efforts of criminal lawyer Cliff Ombeta, Dola was eventually granted bail after Justice Nicholas Ombija, who initially presided over the case, reduced by half the bail terms from Sh1 million.

Later, while in remand, Dola supposedly had an altercation with warders and was placed in solitary confinement. He was also allegedly tortured, a matter he brought up in court.

Astonishingly, it turned out later that during his relatively free time out on bail, Dola had travelled out of the country.

“I had to get away,” he said during a media interview. “I went out but came back because Kenya is home. I met a lady who has been understanding and has been with me throughout. She will soon be my wife.”

Dola also seems to be haunted by the fact that his wife, Wambui, is gone forever, and told an interviewer that he missed her, adding that he still felt he was a member of her family “unless the conclusion of the case separates us”.

Many who knew Dola were later surprised to learn that he had converted to Islam when at the Industrial Area Remand Prison, and had changed his name to Musa Muhammad Dola. He would later insist in an interview that the change of faith was not a gimmick.   

From the onset, the case had captured the nation’s attention, but interest fizzled out following long adjournments and delays, to the disappointment of the Kabirus. 

Matters were made worse, the Kabirus say, when Justice Ombija was suspended by the Judicial Service Commission and the case was consequently put in abeyance for most of 2013, after which there was a ruling that it had to begin all over again. Justice Ombija has since returned to the bench.

As matters stand, fewer than half the prosecution witnesses have testified, and the Kabirus are hardly looking forward to the next hearing, scheduled for January 28 and 29. The proceedings will be before a new trial judge, Justice Roselyn Korir, and the Kabirus are worried about the prospect of no progress being made.

Not surprisingly, Mrs Kabiru screamed in court when it was announced earlier this year that the trial would have to begin anew. Talking to Lifestyle last week, Mr Kabiru said time seems to have frozen in the last three-and-a-half years as the family anxiously awaits the conclusion of the trial.

The slow progress of the case, he says, “has taken the toll on my wife’s health” and today she is a pale shadow of her former self.

Why, he keeps asking, should the case take so long to conclude?

Matters were not made easier later when Dola, while out on bail, began sending mobile phone text messages informing Mrs Kabiru that he wanted to visit the family in Nyali to see his little son Nate. 

Recalling those days, Mrs Kabiru explains that the frequent and irritating messages nearly sent her round the bend. She says she instinctively became more protective of her now motherless grandson and sought court assistance to stop the messages from Dola. It felt like adding insult to injury.

According to her, the SMSs only stopped when Safaricom phone records were presented in court as proof of Dola’s nagging, and he was ordered to stop sending any more messages.

“I had recurrent nightmares about losing my grandson Nate,” says Mrs Kabiru.

“Having earlier negotiated to be granted his custody, I could not imagine him being taken away from me. I kept clutching him tight at odd times, which I still do to this day. I am always alert for his safety.”

Even when Dola’s mother sent her Sh5,000 to buy a present for Nate on his second birthday, Mrs Kabiru promptly sent the money back, fearing there was a ruse to try and grab custody of the boy.

During the interview, Mrs Kabiru leaves no doubt that her health has continued to deteriorate as the case drags on.

She has sought the services of a counsellor, but says she is still haunted by memories of her departed daughter to the extent of sometimes calling Wambui’s mobile telephone number, and at other times repeatedly reading the many text messages her daughter used to send her.

Fortunately, the Kabiru family has enjoyed succour from their daughter’s loyal friends, including her former colleagues at Nation Media Group and classmates at Daystar University and Moi Forces Academy, Lanet.

In retrospect, the Kabirus now say they never got to know their son-in-law’s family well.

For Mr and Mrs Kabiru, getting to know Dola had also taken some time as their daughter had appeared reluctant to introduce him to them. Her reticence was, they thought, caused by the fact that her parents had been close to a fiancé she had earlier, and with whom she had broken up — apparently to the disappointment of her family and friends.

“He was a Nairobi-based banker popularly known as Anto,” recalls Mrs Kabiru.

She says the young man had become so close to her daughter that he even attended her graduation party in June 2006.

Mrs Kabiru adds: “Naturally, we all expected the two to get married, and everybody was surprised when Wambui suddenly ditched him for Dola.”

Nonetheless, the initial impression of Dola was that he was “polite and courteous to a fault” and ultimately they had no misgivings about having him as a son-in-law, the cultural and ethnic barriers notwithstanding.

The soft-spoken Dola, recalls Mrs Kabiru, was always ready to lend a hand. Often, they recall, he even played house-help — cooking, washing dishes and even changing nappies without hesitation. He was also invariably very sober, and never drank alcohol in their presence.

“For the time we knew Dola we never noticed anything untoward,” says Mr Kabiru. “It was easy to get along with him, especially after he stayed with us at Mikindani in 2009 with our daughter and the baby.”

As it happened, soon after the couple’s arrival at Mikindani, there was an informal visit by some of Dola’s relatives based in Mombasa, including three uncles from the Ating’a clan to which Dola belongs.

2010 Christmas

Later, the Kabirus readily welcomed Dola to their new home in Nyali, which they had then just bought, and it was there that he spent the 2010 Christmas with Wambui and their infant son. 

According to the Kabirus, many of Dola’s Mombasa-based relatives often passed by to share in the merry-making. In the event, there had been plans for them to formally visit the Mikindani home earlier, but it never happened, and so the Kabirus did not get to know them well.

Despite the circumstances, the two families have since the killing of  the TV journalist remained cordial with each other, from preparing for Wambui’s funeral to holding conversations whenever they attended court sessions. 

Back to the first call on the fateful morning of May 1, 2011 — and the subsequent narrative that has been repeated in police statements and court testimonies: the caller was Wairimu, a house-help in her 50s who had been working for some time for the young couple.

“Have you talked to your people here?” Wairimu asked Mrs Kabiru. 

Told that they had not yet communicated with their daughter and her companion Dola, the house-help sounded restless and dour as she explained that the cooking gas had run out on the previous day, which was a Saturday.

She added that Wambui had promised to wake up early on Sunday morning to go and fetch a filled cylinder. Instead, Wairimu explained, speaking in noticeably nervous tones, it was Dola who had woken up early.

Clearly, she was alarmed that Wambui had not yet woken up, an unusual thing at the best of times for a Sunday morning, and more so as she had promised to buy the cooking gas.

Brief quarrel

Even more alarming, before leaving the house, Dola had allegedly told Wairimu that his wife was still asleep in the bedroom, which was locked. She added that a jittery Dola had also said he was going to town and would be back later.

Wairimu also explained that her employers had supposedly had a brief quarrel on Saturday evening, and that Wambui had gone to bed without taking the chicken and ugali supper that had earlier been prepared.

In the interview with Lifestyle,  the Kabirus recall how the early morning call from Nairobi in 2011 had unsettled them at their home in Nyali, where a pervading feeling that all was not well ensued.

“We had been uneasy and unsettled all day since the early morning call from the house- help,” says Mrs Kabiru, adding that she quickly called her son Gitahi, who also used to live in Umoja, and told him to rush to Wambui’s house.

But she was puzzled when Gitahi said he was with Dola. Wambui’s brother would later testify in court that the accused had paid him a visit at 8 a.m. looking distraught and said he wanted to drink alcohol. Gitahi opted to take him out for a drink before the duo eventually parted ways.

The court was also told that at one point Dola took the phone from Gitahi and assured Mrs Kabiru that her daughter was fine — even though he had differed a bit with Wambui and she had gone out for a walk.

But later in the evening, when the Kabirus were watching the 7 p.m. TV news at home, Dola called Mrs Kabiru using Wambui’s phone and broke the news that she had died.

He allegedly said he had banged her head against the wall and she had died as a result. Doubt was later cast on this theory after a post-mortem report and the death certificate, that form part of the ongoing legal proceedings, indicated the death was caused by a heavy blow to the skull using a blunt object.

Still incredulous, Mr Kabiru had sent his son Gitahi, a cousin of his named Wang’ombe and a Major Njoroge to go to his daughter’s house in Umoja and see what had transpired.

In the course of time, Dola’s parents and their relatives were closely following what was happening.

For instance, on the Sunday evening following Wambui’s killing, Dola reportedly called his mother in Kisumu and informed her about what had happened.

Dola’s uncle Fredrick Ating’a was among the first people to know about the killing.

As the saga unfolded, it turned out that Ating’a had for some time been aware of the crisis brewing within his nephew’s house. In fact, he revealed that Wambui had once called him and sought his intervention after a quarrel.

“They came to my house and we ironed out their problems, which had to do with Dola’s erratic behaviour,” Ating’a later told the media.

He admitted that Dola was a troubled man who had on a different occasion contacted him soon after returning from his Bondo rural home, where he was unsuccessful in his attempt to enlist in the Kenya Police Service.

His nephew, Ating’a added, had been unsettled after losing his job at NMG at about the same time his wife-to-be quit working for the organisation.

Dola would later try his hand as a freelance journalist.

In their recent conversation with Lifestyle, the Kabirus also revealed that Dola and Wambui had a rocky relationship. This was made worse by the young man’s lack of stable employment that was inversely proportional to his lover’s career progression. 

It would later emerge that Wambui eventually wanted out of the union, and confided to close friends about her decision, while also seeking help from counsellors. She was reportedly also trying to reach Dola’s mother to request her to take him to her home in Kisumu for at least two years to see if he could get his act together.

As the case unravels, the true version of the events that led to Wambui’s death may at last be revealed. In the meantime, however, the Kabirus can only wait in agony as the wheels of justice turn slowly.