A few minutes after midnight on July 15, 2026, Nelson Irungu got a call from his girlfriend who worked as a bar attendant in Kongo-ini, Murang’a County.
At the time Irungu was with friends in Mukuyu town, about 5km away.He was drinking and chewing muguka. As a result of the call from his girlfriend, he left to go see her and that was the last time he was seen alive after his lifeless body was discovered two days later.
According to his friend John Ngugi, when Irungu was on the call, laughed on the phone and joked with the caller, before he excused himself and then went outside. However he never returned back.
Another friend, Geoffrey Kung’u who also narrated his side also indicated that on the last day he was with Irungu, he gave him a motorcycle ride to Kongo-ini where they found Irungu’s girlfriend at a bar in Kwa Mzee area. Kung’u left them with 3 other men and the next thing he (Kung’u) heard in the morning was that Irungu was in hospital with serious injuries.
On the other hand, police report says that people saw a man (Irungu) at night removing iron sheets from the bar roof. Residents caught him and beat him and left him nursing serious injuries. Police indicate that they found him around 4am and took him to hospital.
A later report also says that detectives who were investigating the matter think Irungu was called to go to Kongo-ini to help steal. The girlfriend had allegedly told him there was about Sh200,000 in the bar.
As a result the police indicated that they think the roof was being removed to make it look like a break-in. The girlfriend was also beaten by people and taken to the same hospital.
In another narrative by another witness who was allegedly in the bar, before Irungu passed away, he did not undergo mob justice as the locals were saying. He says that Irungu was called at the bar in Kongo-ini after the girlfriend suspected he was cheating on her.
He says an argument started with 3 men, including a police officer, and they (the 3 men) united and beat Irungu. He also says that people later attacked Irungu’s girlfriend because they thought she set Irungu up and it is why she was also taken to the hospital.
Meanwhile, documents at the Murang’a Level Five Hospital’s indicate that Irungu had bad injuries to his head, chest, stomach and pelvis that probably claimed his life on July 17, 2026.
Irungu’s family too is demanding justice for their kin and they are questioning the police motive of focusing too much on the theft story and not on who killed him. The case is still under investigation by the DCI.