State House trespasser laid to rest but questions linger
State House trespasser William Ngene Njuguna was laid to rest last week at his family home in Kirigu Village, Dagorretti South constituency, amid questions over the cause of his death.
At a funeral service attended by family, friends and local leaders, Njuguna was eulogised as a jovial person and hardworking person who did not fear expressing his ideas.
“He was like a dreamer,” said his best friend Peter Mbugua.
“The words he spoke were confusing to many. Most people did not take his words seriously, they thought he was always joking. It is from his ‘dreams’ that he got the idea of going to State House just to see it in person and to greet President Uhuru Kenyatta.”
Njuguna was found dead on March 7 at Uhuru Park’s main dias in Nairobi two days after pleading guilty at a court hearing over his trespassing case.
His family said he had been talking for a while about his planned entry to State House before he was arrested that fateful day by GSU officers after jumping two fences.
“He fasted and prayed for days in readiness for his mission. He said it was the last thing he would do. We tried talking him out of it but he insisted. He said goodbye to us and left for State House. We learnt of his arrest from the media,” said Mbugua.
Officers from the Directorate of Criminal Investigations had earlier recorded statements from his parents and the local leaders at his home in Kirigu village, Matuini Ward, accompanied by the area chief George Mukuria.
The family had no idea he was missing.
While postmortem results showed he was hit by a blunt object on his head leading to a blood clot and eventually his death, family members suspect foul play in his death.
They claim his missing left eye and the way the postmortem was carried out raised many questions.
“The forms we signed to identify his body at City Mortuary are different from what we were given when we went to pick his body after the postmortem. We were not even involved in the postmortem process,” said his cousin George Mwaura.
The family now wants investigations to be carried out to ascertain the cause of his death.
Njuguna was the third born in his family of seven including his parents.