W***n who was with Senator Kabaka when he fell i*l now a free person

Esther Nthenya Muli, the high school teacher from Wote Town in Makueni County, who was with Late Machakos Senator Boniface Kabaka when he fell ill on December 3 last year, has now been freed by a Nairobi court.

The Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (ODPP) asked the Nairobi Magistrate’s court to terminate an application in which it had requested to detain the suspect longer to allow for investigations into her alleged involvement in Kabaka’s health woes.

The ODPP, through its counsel Abel Omariba, said it does not have any evidence linking Muli, 45, to Kabaka’s health problems which resulted in his death on December 11, 2020. The prosecution had initially suggested it would charge Muli with murder.

Muli’s lawyer, Dan Maanzo, told the court that it was puzzling that the prosecution was seeking to detain his client, yet she did not kill Kabaka, whatsoever.

“She actually helped the senator get to hospital,” said Maanzo.

“I am urging the court to unconditionally free Muli. The prosecution can, however, proceed investigating what caused Kabaka’s death,” added Muli’s legal representative.

Magistrate Daniel Ngugi said he had accepted ODPP’s application withdrawing a legal suit against Muli.

On December 9, 2020, a postmortem report indicated that Kabaka’s vomit samples analysed at the Government Chemist had no toxins fed to the lawmaker as had been suspected.

Police had held Muli in custody, suspecting she might have poisoned Kabaka. However, the vomit samples test results indicated there was no foul play in the legislator’s sudden ailment.

Shortly after Kabaka’s death in Nairobi Hospital on December 11, 2020, Wiper Party Leader Kalonzo Musyoka revealed that the lawmaker had undergone a surgical operation to remove a clot in his brain.

The senator had been taken to the Nairobi Hospital ICU in critical condition on December 4 after falling ill in a Kilimani apartment.

Speculations surrounded the cause of his sudden ailment, with Musyoka calling for sensitivity while reporting on or sharing content regarding the legislator’s death.

“Senator Kabaka had to undergo a [surgical] operation, which was conducted by one of the most respected neurosurgeons [in Kenya], Prof. [Christopher] Musau,” Musyoka said on December 11 while addressing journalists at the Lee Funeral Home, where Kabaka’s body was taken for preservation.

“The [surgical operation] exercise was done to remove a clot in the legislator’s brain. It is normally never an easy thing (sic). That is what I can say for now, even as I announce the death of our late brother Senator Boniface Kabaka. We shall know all things at the end of everything,” added Musyoka.

“For now, I want to urge restraint [to be exercised] in the reporting of [circumstances leading to] the senator’s death. I want to appeal to our friends in the media to be kind to his family at this time. A headline like ‘Kabaka was on a date…’ brings with it all manner of speculations. Kindly, let us let our brother rest in peace; let us not cause his family more pain.”

Senator Kabaka was buried at his ancestral home in Masinga, Machakos County on December 22, 2020.