Tony Ogunda in court May 6, 2013 where he was denied sending an offensive message to former minister Raphael Tuju. Mr Ogunda was found dead in Nairobi July 2, 2013. FILE
Mr Opondo said that when he woke up around 6.20am, Ogunda appeared to be in a deep sleep. However, at around 7am, he decided to wake him up, but Mr Ogunda did not respond.
Mr Ogunda had been named in a divorce petition filed by Mr Tuju, who is seeking to end his 27-year marriage to Ms Akinyi, with whom the former presidential aspirant has three children.
The lover of former Cabinet minister Raphael Tuju's wife was Tuesday found dead at a friend's house in Nairobi's Upper Hill area.
Mr Tony Ogunda, a former General Service Unit (GSU) police officer, was found dead in the house on Matumbato Road, where he had been staying with the friend, Mr Cosmas Okoth Opondo, for about two weeks.
"Investigations have begun with the aim of establishing if a crime was committed. However, for now we are treating it as sudden death," Nairobi police county commander Benson Kibui said.
Exhibits including a bottle of liquor and a syringe were collected from the house.
Mr Tuju's estranged wife, Ruth Akinyi, expressed shock at the news of Mr Ogunda's death. "It is strange to me since I did not even know where he was," she said in a telephone interview.
Mr Opondo said the two had gone for drinks at Relax Bar on Duruma Road at around 11pm on Monday and remained there until around 1.39am when they returned home. Mr Ogunda slept on a couch.
Mr Opondo said that when he woke up around 6.20am, Ogunda appeared to be in a deep sleep. However, at around 7am, he decided to wake him up, but Mr Ogunda did not respond.
He then reported the matter at the Capitol Hill police post and officers from the station went to his home to conduct preliminary investigations.
Police found a bottle of liquor and a syringe next to the body.
When the Nation team visited the City Mortuary at around noon, the body was still fully dressed but without shoes. There were not visible injuries.
Mr Ogunda had been named in a divorce petition filed by Mr Tuju, who is seeking to end his 27-year marriage to Ms Akinyi, with whom the former presidential aspirant has three children.
Mr Ogunda also had a pending criminal case at the Milimani Law Courts where he had been charged with sending offensive messages to Mr Tuju.
In May, he was charged at the Kibera Law Courts with trespassing into Mr Tuju's compound. He was out on bond awaiting trial in both cases.
Mr Tuju, while speaking to the Nation on phone from Johannesburg, South Africa, said he had learnt of the death but since he was out of the country, he did not have the details.
"(He) had on several occasions intentionally provoked me, but the last thing I would have wished him was death," the former Rarieda MP said.
Mystery syringe as Raphael Tuju wife's lover found dead
Updated Tuesday, July 2nd 2013 at 23:44 GMT +3
By Cyrus Ombati and Felix Olick
Nairobi, Kenya: Tony Ogunda, the man at the centre of the acrimonious divorce between former minister Raphael Tuju and his estranged wife Ruth Akinyi, was stalked by controversy even in death.
Ogunda was found dead Tuesday morning on a sofa where he spent the night as a guest of the son of Akinyi's sister, Collins Okoth.
In spite of a court order restraining him from entering a number of properties belonging to the former Rarieda MP, the property on which he died in Nairobi's Upper Hill area hosts the offices of an NGO run by Tuju - Kenya Hope Foundation -and is believed to belong to him.
Besides his body was a container and syringe which police suspect was used to inject him before he died.
Ogunda, still only in his 20s, is best known for his very public run-ins with 54-year-old former Foreign Affairs minister who filed for divorce over his relationship with his wife.
Tuju, who is in Johannesburg, South Africa, said it was unfortunate Ogunda had died.
"I cannot wish anyone death and it is unfortunate he died. Let the police carry out their investigations," he told The Standard Tuesday.
Relatives and former colleagues of the ex-General Service Unit officer gave conflicting accounts of his life that gave the impression of a split personality.
Even the reason why the well-built young man left the GSU after only two-year service was as mysterious as his sudden death Tuesday.
His former colleagues at the paramilitary unit claimed he was dismissed over alleged links to crime.
But his elder brother, Fredrick Omondi, claimed he quit the GSU in 2008 (he had only been recruited the previous year) to pursue further education.
Abduction saga
Omondi said his brother would have finished his Bachelor of Education programme by next year at Maseno University.
Kilimani police boss Bernard Muli said they found a bottle labeled Humalog 1DNA 100 gms with the syringe next to the body. The drug is used for diabetes treatment.
"This is a case of sudden death and our officers are investigating it. We do not know what caused the death," said Muli.
According to his former colleagues at GSU Headquarters in Nairobi, Ogunda was dismissed from the service after he was allegedly involved in an abduction saga.
"He only served for two years having passed out in April 2008. He was dismissed for involvement in abduction," said the officer who did not wish to be named.
"But it also rumoured that he was secretly involved in drug trafficking."
But his elder brother said the quest for higher education saw him quit the elite police unit whose members offer VIP protection. "He was pursuing a Bachelor in Education and was supposed to clear his studies by next year," explained Omondi, clearly overwhelmed by emotions.
He maintained that his brother was in school full time and only travelled to Nairobi one and a half weeks ago to attend "a court case" he was not willing to discuss.
Ogunda had been named in a divorce petition filed by Tuju, who is seeking to legally end his 27-year marriage to Ruth Akinyi Wanjare, with whom the former presidential aspirant has three children.
Omondi declined to discuss the controversy surrounding his brother and Tuju's wife but acknowledged that "his family had discussed the issue".
Former GSU colleagues who worked with Ogunda talked fondly about the man whose life tragically came to an end as jovial but whose mind was hard to read.
"He was very jovial and soft spoken. Although it was very difficult to read his mind," said an officer who went with him to Embakasi GSU Training schools.
According to police reports, Ogunda had been with his friend, Okoth, on Monday night on a drinking spree. They went back to the house at about 2 am. Okoth said in his statement they went to the city centre for a while on Monday before walking downtown to Relax Pub on River Road where they had drinks until about 1.30 am.
"We left the residence at about 11 pm and headed for town for drinks before we returned at 1.30 am and retired to bed. I slept on bed and he slept on a sofa," said Okoth.
He said he woke up at about 6.20 am and tried to wake up Ogunda but there was no response for 40 minutes. He had been hosting Ogunda for the last two weeks, he said.
His elder brother said Ogunda was not sick and his family in Sindo, Homa Bay County, was shocked to receive the disturbing news of his death. "Friends and relatives staying in Nairobi began calling the family at about 9-10 in the morning," he told the Standard. Okoth rushed to the nearby Capitol Hill Police Station where he reported the matter and police visited the scene moments later before recording a statement from him.
The body was however taken to the City Mortuary at about 11 am where police reported it was out of a sudden death incident.
The scene where the body was found is a servant's quarter and its door showed evidence of a forced entry. It is not clear when and who broke the door as Okoth who is a student at the Utalii College in Nairobi declined to give further details.
Other residents of the compound just pointed to the house where he died and declined to open the main gate and give interviews. The house neighbouring where the body was found, number 10 also belongs to Tuju.
Ogunda who is alleged to have been involved in a physical brawl with Tuju at one time completed high school in 2005 at Kanga Boys high school. Earlier, the third born in a family of four went to Xaverian Primary School in Kisumu.
Ogunda's lawyer Cliff Ombeta visited the scene and expressed shock at the death revealing the deceased had been complaining of death threats from unknown people.
Bodyguards
Ombeta said he last talked to Ogunda on Monday at about 4 pm and discussed with him an assault case that he wanted to file and complain against the former minister and his guards.
"He said officers at Kilimani were not co-operative with the case and I advised him to report to Nairobi Area CID. There are some documents I also wanted from him, which he never handed to me," said Ombeta.
Apparently, Ogunda planned to record a statement to claim Tuju and his bodyguards had assaulted him on May 30 at the neighbouring house where he was found.
This followed an order by the courts that he records the statement with the police. Since then, he, according to Ombeta, has not managed to do so because police were apparently uncooperative.
Ombeta said Ogunda had demanded an identification parade to enable him to identify those who assaulted him on the said day.
Former Minister Raphael Tuju's son questioned over Ogunda's death
Updated Sunday, July 7th 2013 at 16:58 GMT +3 By Cyrus Ombati
NAIROBI, KENYA: A son to former minister Raphael Tuju has been questioned over the death of Tony Ogunda, the former police officer at the centre of a lover triangle with his mother.
Police visited the offices of the Mr Mano Tuju, 26 who is a pilot in Nairobi and took his statements at the weekend as part of investigations into the death of Ogunda.
This was because other witnesses who have recorded statements said he had been drinking with deceased and other friends in the past weeks before the incident happened.
"Mano explained his side of the story and their meetings and we will analyse the statements later," said an officer aware of the probe.
Mano happens to have been drinking with the deceased and other friends days before Ogunda, 24 was found dead in their house last Tuesday morning.
So far police have recorded statements from at least 10 people including Tuju's wife Ruth Akinyi.
Police said Tuju who arrived back to the country from South Africa on Friday is expected to also record his statement this week.
"Not that he is a suspect but as part of the normal investigations. His statements can be good," said another officer who asked not to be named.
A nephew to former minister Raphael Tuju, Cosmas Okoth who was with Ogunda before he died was Friday presented before court.
But police did not prefer murder charge against him saying the investigations were still incomplete.
They asked for seven days to complete investigations, which would determine whether or not to charge him.
Mrs Ruth Akinyi , Raphael Tuju's estranged wife leaves Kilimani police on July 04,2013 after recording statement in regard with the death of late Tony Ogunda. PHOTO/WILLIAM OERI NATION
What do you do? Should you involve your elders back home or should you go it alone? Should the age of your marriage - whether married for 10 years or 10 weeks - have a bearing on the final outcome? Should you let your children know that their mother has another ‘Daddy'?
On July 2, a man was found dead inside a friend's house after a night of drinking. Had he been just another Joe Doe, you most probably would have heard nothing about it. His death would have been recorded at a nearby police station and his body picked by relatives for burial. End of story.
But not this one. The dead man was Tony Ogunda, accused by former Cabinet minister Raphael Tuju of having an affair with his wife. A former serviceman with the General Service Unit, Ogunda had become a common subject in news items over that alleged hanky-panky with Mrs Tuju and was the reason Tuju had headed to the courts seeking divorce from his wife.
Clearly, his death would be national news. And that not just because of the titillation it would cause at the marketplace, but also because of the introspection and social interrogation of issues it would trigger.
What do you do, as a man, when you learn beyond reasonable doubt that your wife has another man in her life? Who do you fault between the two? Who do you deal with?
Should you involve your elders back home or should you go it alone? Should the age of your marriage - whether married for 10 years or 10 weeks - have a bearing on the final outcome? Should you let your children know that their mother has another ‘Daddy'?
The questions that have been flying around these past few days have been many, but the answers have not been forthcoming. What is emerging, therefore, is that men rarely reflect on these issues.
Maybe they just think about them and internalise the horrors, wishing to live in the dark than confront those ghosts. Yes, the men walking these streets are not as macho as they appear. Deep within those hairy chests are buried tonnes of fears they would rather bottle up than confront.
But Ogunda is dead, and now that personal reflection has been taken to the bars, matatus, restaurants and social media.
Marriage, they say, is a lifelong commitment. A forever commitment. It is sacred (or used to be), it is lawful (or used to be), it is to have and to hold (or used to be), it is from that day forward (or used to be), for better or for worse (or it used to be), it is for richer or for poorer (or used to be), it is in sickness and in health (or used to be), it is until death do us part (or used to be). Then the priest would bless your declaration and pronounce the words that many have refused to honor: "What God has joined, man must not divide. Amen."
Yet the past seems to have caught up with the present, the vows that were once held in reverence seem to have lost all their bonding power. The lines and boundaries are now nothing but a faint blur.
No one cares anymore for what is sacred or what is not, no one knows who exactly to hold and who not to have, no one wants to confront ‘for worse' and, apparently, many seem to be good at tearing apart what God put together.
For years, men have been the villains in the script of marriage. In movies, their women are cast as characters who spend long nights worrying about their husbands' straying. They dread the hour the man will saunter through the door reeking of lust and a red lipstick mark on his shirt collar stamping his wayward ways.
Wives are constantly worried about the probability of there being another woman while their men sit back, pull their beers and wait for the cat fight to begin. Well, not any more. The tables have turned, and now the men are on the receiving end.
We could have taken this story to the counsellors, pyschologists, sociologists and religious leaders, but we opted for the man on the street, the quintessential character in the movie script against whom the tables have turned.
We asked these men what they would do if they discovered their wives were cheating on them, their answers are food for thought for anyone in a serious relationship or planning to get into one.
Michael Njoroge has been married for the past four years. He lives with his wife in Nairobi but says he is not sure whether she is faithful to him or not.
He rarely discusses the issue of fidelity with his wife, either because he does not wish to know what space he occupies in her heart, or because he is too timid to confront her. As such, he says, the only thing he can do about it is pray.
But what would he do should he learn that his wife of four years is cheating on him?
"I would confront her about it," he says, "and, knowing women, she would most likely open up. Then I would just ask for divorce and let her go on with the other man."
Njoroge then pauses, his eyes squinting in the smog of the Nairobi sky, then seeks a clarification: "Are we talking of a situation where I live in the same house with the woman and sleep on the same bed with her every night, or a situation where we are married but rarely meet, either because I'm in prison or working in a different town?
"Either way," he continues, "she would have to leave. The betrayal, however, would be more painful if we lived together, and even more so if she brought the other man home. I wouldn't care for how long we've been together or if we have children, she would have to go. There are no two ways about it."
A few metres away, Justus Asige bites his lips upon hearing the question, his thoughts either too convoluted to make sense, or too scary to voice. After a few seconds, he shakes his head and throws up his hands.
"I don't know what I would do," he says. "I'm not sure."
Asige does not look like he has ever thought about the possibility of his wife ever cheating on him. Married for seven years, his lack of words, his shock at the very question, his belief that his wife cannot, should not, cheat on him, is representative of the beliefs of the male of the species.
But, in recent years, those beliefs increasingly seem misplaced. Women have changed the game and now is the turn for men to get worried. Charge it to the liberation movement, exposure to Western influences, or any other thing that you may, but men now have to worry about the sweaty smell on her, the many trips to conferences out of town, the weekend chama meetings.
Former minister tells police that wife's lover had been barred from going to house where he was found dead
Former minister Raphael Tuju on Monday told police that his wife's lover Tony Ogunda, who was found dead in his house, was not supposed to be there in the first place.
He said: "There was an existing court order that barred him (Mr Ogunda) from going to any of my premises and it's unfortunate his death occurred at my premises."
Mr Tuju was summoned to Nairobi's Kilimani Police Station on Monday and had his statement recorded.
Mr Ogunda was found dead at a house off Matumbatu Road in Upper Hill on Tuesday last week.
"I have also confirmed that when it happened I was in Johannesburg, South Africa, on business. When I heard about it, I gave instructions to my employees who work there to cooperate with the police. My children, especially my daughters, have been greatly affected. It has been a wilderness for me and my family," he said after the session with the police.
He arrived at the station at 10.45am and left shortly after 1pm.
Police have so far quizzed 12 people over Mr Ogunda's death, which pathologists said was caused by injuries inflicted with a blunt object.
Detectives are holding Mr Cosmas Okoth, a nephew of the former minister's wife Ruth Akinyi, who was arrested on Thursday last week and presented in court the following day.
Pending court cases
Ms Tabitha Wangari Kimani, who police said is Mr Okoth's girlfriend, was also questioned and her statement recorded.
She told the police that she was with Mr Ogunda and Mr Okoth at a bar earlier on the fateful night.
Mr Tuju also said that there are three pending court cases pitting him against Mr Ogunda.
In one case, he is seeking to divorce his estranged wife.
Mr Tuju said: "I confirmed that Mr Okoth is a nephew of my wife. I actually brought him up. I paid his school fees over the years since he is an orphan. I also confirmed that he was living at my premises with my permission."
He added: "Whatever question, I have answered at the police. The matter is in the hands of investigators and I don't want to speculate and would want to give police the space to do their investigations."
Investigators have also taken statements from Ms Sabina Anyango, Mrs Tuju and Mr Okoth. Ms Anyango is Mrs Tuju's sister and works at the premises.
The premises are a complex comprising residential houses. The Kenya Hope Foundation, which Mr Tuju runs, is located at the complex. (READ: Tuju's wife questioned in Ogunda death probe)
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