When Jamleck Irungu dropped out of school at class seven(7) against his parents' wish, his mother, Ms Rosemary Wairimu, says she wept for days.

She regrets that her son's life was to play out from the good to the promising to the bad until he died on August 15, 2024.

She described her son's demise as a tragedy that she had see coming and had tried hard to unsuccessfully avert.

"He started well even after he dropped out of school, later got entangled in alcoholism, married but could not get it right, loved bar brawls and was to die in one of those violent streaks," Ms Wairimu said.

She says she had identified that Irungu, whom she had given birth to in 1985, had great potential.

"I had identified a hardworking trait in him that was unique. At school, he was bright, obedient and focused. Then all of a sudden he announced that he was dropping out. I cried," she told us at her Wairia village on August 21, 2024.

She said among her five(5) children, Irungu appeared to have been the heavens' chosen one to be the hope of the family.

"After it became apparent that he was not resuming schooling, I prayed to God to reveal himself to my son... guide him to his destiny," she said.

Irungu who died and will be buried on Saturday August 24, 2024 had befriended some of his village seniors who were hawkers in Nairobi.

Underage, he left home for Nairobi and became an apprentice to his friends from the village.

"He exhibited great responsibility since he bought for himself good clothes using the little he got and would spare some for his siblings," she said.

Ms Wairimu said her son would occasionally buy her some clothes too and do some shopping for the family.

"I thanked God that all was not lost, that even though he had dropped out of school, it was not to pursue destructive lifestyle... I feared that he would venture into crime," she says.

After five(5) years as a hawker, Irungu returned to the village and was employed by a timber harvester as a casual labourer.

"He would help carry power saws to timber harvesting sites as well as play the role of a loader," she says.

So focused he was to make it in life that he managed to buy his own power saw  after six years of apprenticeship.

"He started getting timber harvesting contracts in the village and the money he would get, he managed to save," Ms Wairimu narrates the tragic story of her son.

In 2009, Irungu married Ms Peris Wanjiku, his mother saying that "at long last it appeared that my son was not after all going to end badly despite refusing education".

But come marriage, Irungu's character changed.

"I don't understand what happened after that marriage. The two were an incomprehensible couple. They were a violent pair and their cases became regular menu at the family level, clan and the administration," Ms Wairimu claims.

After 10 years of struggling to be together, they parted ways and she moved to a shopping centre called Gachiriro and which is about a kilometre from her matrimonial home, to become a barmaid.

"As they struggled in their matrimony, Irungu was at the same time expanding his enterprise and had started transporting timber to Nairobi," Ms Wairimu states.

She says she became confused on how to rate her son because "he was not lucky in being a husband, was lucky to be a father to four(4) children and still kept his enterprise growing".

She says that the biggest problem about him was that he had become an alcoholic.

"His appetite to take alcohol was novel, but he provided for his family even when they separated," she says.

The separation condition was that Irungu keep two sons and the wife go take off with a son and a daughter.

"But all the children united around their father and looked up on him as their common provider," she says.

Mr Irungu's love for alcohol and enterprise continued to play out until August 4, 2024, when he went to Gachiriro town centre to take alcohol at the bar next to where his former wife was the barmaid.

The two bars are designed in such a way that, Patrons can interact... since the doors face each other.

At around 11pm, it is reported that violence broke out between some patrons, Irungu among them.

The rest is shrouded in a mystery and is subject to police investigation since Irungu was found lying in a ditch a few metres from the bar he had quarreled with his fellow revellers.

The police incident report brief by Mathioya Sub-County Police Commander Mr Paul Karobia says that he was picked by well wishers who rushed him to Murang'a Level 5 Hospital.

"He was placed him in the High Dependency Unit (HDU) where he succumbed after 10 days making it a matter of investigations on circumstances he was attacked and left for the dead," the report reads.

Postmortem report by Dr Kamotho Watenga shows that the victim died of brain trauma occasioned by blunt object force on the head.

The report noted that the victim had blood clots in the brain.

When Irungu's death news reached Gachiriro trading centre, residents went berserk and raided nearby police patrol base, chief's camp, the bar he had last patronized and a homestead they said belonged to a suspect behind the attack.

Irungu's ex wife told AVDelta News that "it is true I was in the shopping centre but not at work".

She said that "I was feeling unwell and was sleeping in my rental house. I only came to know of his attack the following morning".

She says she played a role of notifying his mother that he had been attacked so that he could be taken to hospital.

"I have since recorded a statement with the police who suspected that the fight was over me...it was not. I am mourning the father of my children and my husband. We were separated yes, but we loved one another," she said.

Mr Karobia said so far police have recorded statements from the bar owner where Mr Irungu was reportedly attacked.

"We are pursuing several leads and soon we will get the issue in the correct perspective. We are sorry for the unfortunate death but also concerned that residents raided security institutions and destroyed both public and private property," Mr Karobia said.

He said the death will be investigated to its logical conclusion and culprits charged in court.

Ms Wairimu said “all I want is justice for my son”.

"But to all other youths, please keep off alcohol and violence. Those are two dangerous passions to get hooked to," she said.

She says Irungu had the potential to become successful in life "since he has managed to buy four power saws, employ 50 youths in his timber and firewood enterprise... only that alcohol became part of him".

She reveals that losing sons has become a painful routine to her since in 2013 her eldest son died after falling ill.

"In 2018 I was in mourning again after I lost another son in a motorcycle accident and here I am in grief again after losing Irungu," she said.