Former radio journalist drowns in Ruiru

A former radio journalist who worked for Nation Media Group has died.

David Kiarie, 35, drowned while swimming in a dam in Ruiru on Wednesday afternoon.

Reports reaching his family indicate that he was seen entering Tytanic restaurant alone around midday, and kept to himself throughout listening to music on his phone.

"After a while, he was seen changing into shorts ready to swim and later jumping into the dam where he swam for a few minutes before disappearing into the waters arousing the curiosity of the onlookers," Michael Kamau, Kiarie's brother-in-law, said.

The witnesses reported the incident to the restaurant's management which then called local authorities who searched his bag and found Kiarie's Identity Card, and used the details to reach his family.

"The area chief shared the details of Kiarie's ID with his colleagues through their WhatsApp group where a Nyandarua chief identified Kiarie's family and got in touch with them through Kamau at around 1am on Thursday night," Kamau added.

On Friday morning, the family reported the matter to Juja Police station and looked for divers who retrieved the body.

"We are still in shock. We do not know what made Kiarie think of swimming in a dam while we all know that he is not experienced at swimming. Why did he not opt to swim in a pool instead?" Teresiah Kamau, his sister, asked.

The family has ruled out suicide saying the events surrounding his death do not indicate it.

"We searched the bag he had and his house for clues and there was none. Prior to his death, there were no changes in his normal behaviour, nothing really disturbed him at the time," Ms Kamau, who shared a meal with her brother at her house three weeks ago, said.

She described him as social and outgoing, who enjoyed his work both at NTV and Royal Media Services.

"He was a good child since childhood. He was also loved by a lot by kids [and] every time we had a gathering he would take the kids somewhere for fun activities. He also used to sing as a hobby," she said.

Kiarie, the fifth born in a family of nine, was a twin brother to Verah Kiarie.

Before his death, he had established a company, Aerial Sure Drones, specialising in drones services after he quit his sales executive manager position at Socabelec East Africa based in Mlolongo, where he was based the whole of last year.

A postmortem conducted today at the Kenyatta University mortuary indicated that his demise was as a result of drowning.