When Mr Mathu Murumbi, 40, was found dead on July 17, 2026, he had a rope around his neck while kneeling with his right leg.

His left leg was broken at the knee joint.

His neighbours in Geitwa village, Murang’a County, immediately refused to accept the suicide theory.

What followed was an impromptu baraza at the scene in his shamba, where he was found dead with a nylon rope around his neck tied to a low branch of a tree.

The neighbours declared it a crime scene and insisted it was an act of murder, freely naming those they believed were responsible.

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So that when officers from the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) arrived, the villagers' position was clearly communicated by their spokesman, Mzee James Wakaba.

“As you take this body from this scene, be well informed that we are not buying the idea that Mr Murumbi hanged himself. We are convinced that this is an act of murder and the culprits are walking free in this very village. Go and tell the government that we will only bury these remains after the suspects have been arrested. And if you do not arrest the suspects, we will execute a citizens’ arrest,” he said.

He said the footprints near the body did not indicate that the deceased had walked to the scene. His left leg had been broken and bent forward at a 90-degree angle.

“We want to understand how a man first breaks his leg, then goes up a tree to tie the rope and then comes down to kneel so as to die,” he said.

Against that background, scene-of-crime officers profiled and documented the scene before taking the body to Murang’a Level Five Hospital Mortuary, promising that the matter would be investigated.

Ten days later, with no arrests made, the villagers went to Murang’a Level Five Hospital mortuary and collected the body, posing as relatives ready to bury the deceased.

But instead of taking the body for burial, they carried the casket to the nearby Geitwa Police Station and abandoned it there.

The standoff

The irate neighbours left after delivering a firm message to the police that the remains would only be buried if and when the key suspects in the murder had been arrested.

Acting on the instructions of County Police Commander Cleti Kimaiyo, police officers transported the body back to the mortuary. The standoff had been established in no uncertain terms: arrest the suspects and we will bury the deceased.

The neighbours were not done. They later stormed two neighbouring homesteads, set all the buildings on fire and killed livestock found there.

It was a crisis that prompted Murang’a County Commissioner Hassan Bule to demand a written explanation from the Murang’a East Security and Intelligence Committee over the ugly standoff.

According to a report seen by the Nation, the man had allegedly been in a sexual relationship with a woman and her daughter in the village.

“After a relationship that spanned about four years, the man abandoned the mother and concentrated on the daughter. Meanwhile, the mother had also moved on and got into a relationship with a village elder. There are toxic rumours yet to be verified that the woman and the village elder conspired to murder Mr Murumbi on the grounds that it was a cultural curse to date both a mother and her daughter,” reads the report.

The compounds that were raided and whose buildings were torched, along with the livestock that were killed, belonged to the woman and the village elder.

In their police statements, the woman and the village elder admitted they were in a relationship but denied any involvement in Mr Murumbi’s death. The woman further stated that she knew Mr Murumbi as a friend but not a sexual partner. She also denied knowledge of any relationship between her daughter and the man.

In turn, the daughter admitted she had been the man’s lover but denied any knowledge that her mother had also been romantically involved with him.

Investigators are trying to navigate the complex web of suspicions in a case where the dead cannot tell their story.

The post-mortem report indicates that Mr Murumbi most likely died from lack of oxygen to the brain, consistent with pressure around the neck that restricted his breathing.

The report also indicated that his left leg had been broken at the knee joint. There was also a ligature mark left by the nylon rope around his Adam's apple.

Murang’a County Chief Officer for Health Eliud Maina told the Nation that post-mortem findings are only complementary evidence to support broader investigations.

“Even if someone physically murdered you by squeezing your neck, the post-mortem report will never tell who the murderer is. The report will only capture how you died but will not answer the question of who did it. It is for the DCI to connect their investigations to the post-mortem findings and answer the question of who, and the motive,” he said.

In Mr Murumbi’s case, Mr Maina said the official post-mortem report states that he died from lack of oxygen to the brain consistent with constriction of the neck by a nylon rope.

“Whether he committed suicide or was murdered is not for us to determine. That is for the DCI. The best way forward is for the DCI to give their investigative findings to the agitated members of the public to quell the mistrust that has erupted,” he said.

As the standoff persists, family spokesman Titus Mwangi said the family had no control over the matter because the neighbours had refused to accept any explanation other than the belief that their kin was murdered.

He said there was some truth in the village's insistence that the Murumbi had been involved in a love triangle involving a mother, her daughter and a village elder, noting that such affairs are difficult to conceal in a close-knit community.

“It is not a wild rumour. Love affairs are hard to conceal, especially those involving neighbours. What the police are demanding is that we provide irrefutable proof. We do not have CCTV cameras in this village to record movements in and out of love nests. That is where the stalemate lies. We have circumstantial evidence but lack substantive proof,” he said.

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He added that the family was bound by the village's collective resolution.

Murang’a Senator Joe Nyutu said the standoff was unfortunate and should be resolved urgently.

“If the man was murdered, his family deserves justice. For the 10 days that this standoff persisted, the security agencies failed to engage the villagers and provide credible information about the case. It should never have reached a point where villagers blocked the burial in protest over what they perceived as government insensitivity to their suspicions,” he said.

However, Commissioner Bule criticised the speed and impunity with which villagers took the law into their own hands.

“It is wrong to raid homesteads and, besides committing acts of arson, go ahead and kill livestock which, by all logic, had nothing to do with the human conflict. The rule of law is not negotiable. Even as we investigate concerns surrounding Mr Murumbi’s death, we will also investigate those who participated in the rampage,” he said.

Mr Bule urged the victims of the attacks to record formal police statements and, where possible, identify the suspects.

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