A year on, Murang'a security yet to find missing woman despite open leads

For a whole year, Murang'a security committee cannot crack the case of Esther Ruguru who went missing in open leads incident on July 1, 2023.

Despite suspects even identifying themselves and family members offering crucial leads to help investigators conclude investigations, the area National Police Service actors together with administrators continue being accused of laziness.

This came as three(3) of the six(6) men linked to Ms Ruguru's disappearance have since come out to defend themselves saying they are blameless.

Ms Ruguru who ran a hotel business in Kiria-ini town, has been profiled by investigators on her case to have been dating six(6) men--two(2) of them being Directorate of Criminal Investigations officers, a mechanic, two(2) businessmen, and a public health officer.

It is this link to the state agencies being part of disappearance suspects that is being cited as core reason why no breakthrough is forthcoming.

However, the officer in charge of investigations Mr Muriithi Muriungi said "we have eliminated key suspects to remain with three(3)--the two(2) businessmen and the public health officer".

The three(3) men are Boniface Macharia who is a Public Health officer, Zablon Wambugu who is a contractor and Stanley Maina who is in the hospitality industry”.

Mr Muriungi then said the three(3) had since recorded statements and were being investigated "as we seek to crack this puzzle of her disappearance".

But more than an year later, Mr Muriungi is yet to crack the case, neither provided proof to convince the family that he even has an idea of what he is seeking to resolve.

This came as Ms Ruguru's mother Ms Alice Njoki,71, confirmed that the three(3) male suspects had at varying moments been introduced to her as lovers to her missing daughter.

She said that she believes that her daughter's disappearance has everything to do with her multiple relationships.

Ms Njoki appealed to Interior CS Kithure Kindiki to help her push investigators on the case to find her missing daughter in the case reported at Kiria-ini police station as OB number 07/04/07/23.

According to Mr Muriungi who is the Mathioya sub-County DCI boss, Ms Ruguru disappeared reportedly as she waited for one of her boyfriends who had promised to pick her for a weekend outing.

It is alleged Mr Maina was the one who was to pick Ms Ruguru for a weekend outing, but ended up the following day admitted in Kiria-ini mission hospital with injuries recorded in the patient card to be in the legs, back, and genitals.

When AVDelta News called the three(3) men to get their views, Mr Maina admitted that “yes we had plans to meet with Ms Ruguru and go to Othaya town for a good time, but before I could pick her I had an accident that saw me hospitalised the same night”.

However, his medical card indicates that he was admitted on July 2, 2023, at 11am and not on the night of July 1, 2023, as he claimed.

“I only wait for God to shed more light into what happened to Ms Ruguru. I am also in anxiety since she was my good friend,” Mr Maina said.

Mr Macharia confirmed that he was once dating Ms Ruguru “but for the past six months preceding her disappearance had agreed to go separate ways”.

He said he is also waiting eagerly to know what happened to her.

On his part, Mr Wambugu said he had on September 24, 2023, called for a family gathering at Ms Njoki’s home to share information he had gathered about Ms Ruguru's disappearance.

“I had gathered information that Ms Ruguru might have been murdered and dumped into Chinga dam in Othaya constituency," Mr Wambugu said.

He added that “this is information I had gathered from reliable sources since the incident had also affected me”.

He told us that he had called the meeting so as to also raise money to help Ms Ruguru's three(3) children.

Ms Ruguru's mother told us that her daughter who separated from her husband in 2015 had entered into the other three(3) relationships "and I was thoroughly briefed about them by my daughter".

“All the three(3) men were well known to me since they would visit my home freely,” Ms Njoki revealed.

She revealed that “initially Ms Ruguru was married to Mr Mureithi Udi and came back to my home with her three(3) children after they differed in their relationship”.

The husband later committed suicide in 2017.

She added that “by the time of going missing, she was only seeing Mr Maina with Mr Wambugu complaining that he had been jilted despite being the greatest financial supporter to Ms Ruguru”.

She said that Ms Ruguru had confided to her that she was to spend Saturday night with Mr Maina and would come on Sunday morning so that “we could attend Sunday service at Door to Heaven church which is about a kilometre from our home.”

“My daughter had dropped seeing Macharia and Wambugu and was concentrating on seeing Maina though once in a while she would visit the other two,” she said.

Ms Njoki added that “my daughter had reported to me that there was a woman who had on June 18, 2023, visited her hotel and threatened her with dire consequences if she did not stop seeing Maina”.

Mr Maina said she was aware of the incident, but refused to confirm whether the said woman was his matrimonial wife as claimed.

Ms Njoki now says she has been trying to record a statement, but she has been turned down.

“It is surprising that the DCI is investigating the loss of my daughter but is turning down family cooperation in providing useful leads,” she said.

Now, Ms Njoki says she is not convinced that the DCI is doing enough to get the whereabouts of her daughter.

However, Mr Muriungi insisted that he is doing all he can to unravel the mystery.

“There is too much pressure being thrown my way…There are too many claims…yes. I have recorded statements from the three(3) men—Macharia, Wambugu and Maina. We have also ascertained that Ms Ruguru’s phone was switched off in Kiria-ini town the same night,” he said.

However, Ms Ruguru’s mother dismisses that claim as a lie “since I had called Ms Ruguru’s phone number and it was getting through without being picked on Sunday morning through to Monday noon when it was switched off”.

Ms Ruguru’s brother, Mr Michael Irungu, said “it is the collective position of our family that Maina’s hospitalisation and my sister’s disappearance are related and the DCI should cease laziness and give us answers”.

Mr Muriungi said “we are working hard and I urge all those with those bits of information to pursue it since all what we are interested in is the final answer”.

He added that “there is a lead we are pursuing though there are even threats about public protests being aired aimed to instill fear in us”.

He added that “we will not be swayed by heresy and information that seeks to mislead the family and as the investigating authority we won’t allow getting bothered by sideshows”.

Mr Stanley Mwangi who is another brother to Ms Ruguru said “the DCI is dismissing all our information as hearsay and even when we told him to grant us permission to get our own divers so that we can confirm in Chinga dam whether she was dumped in it, he dismissed us”.

Mr Mwangi wondered how such information could not have triggered quick action from the DCI “if it has an interest of concluding this case”.

Mr Muriungi said “the Chinga dam intel is irrelevant to what we are investigating”.

Ms Ruguru’s mother said at 71 now and who was widowed 22 years ago, Ms Ruguru had become the chief financier in her life.

“I am a mother of three(3) sons and two(2) daughters. One of the daughters has since died and the other is now missing. I now have three(3) sons who cannot afford my upkeep burden. Whoever took away Ms Ruguru from me can as well come and murder me because I will eventually succumb to worry and want,” she said.

She lamented that Ms Ruguru’s children are suffering the most “one being at Maseno University, the other in Form Four, and the last born in Grade 8”.

The brothers said they have been to all mortuaries, hospitals and prisons in Mt Kenya region in the hope that they would find her dead or alive.

Former Mathioya Deputy County Commissioner Mr Kiplagat Tarus said the incident is baffling and complex.

But he remained optimistic that the officers dealing with it will crack it.

"I left the place when the case was being handled by the relevant law enforcement agencies and we were then doing all we could to find the whereabouts of the missing woman," Mr Tarus said.

But the tact and pace at which the Kiria-ini police are applying regarding the case has infuriated Ruguru's family, friends and residents who now say they are collectively running out of patience.

Ms Ruguru's eldest daughter Ms Carolyne Njoki,21, said her two(2) siblings have greatly been affected by events surrounding the life of their mother.

"The hope of finding my mother has turned into a panic. Whatever the circumstances around her disappearance, we need her home. If those behind her disappearance have harmed her, they should let us have her back in whatever state," Carolyne prayed.