Nairobi News

During the funeral service of the late Maurice Chichi Choge at the Friends Church Quaker in Langata on June 8, 2023, his widow, Beatrice Chepkorir narrated his last few hours alive until his sudden demise in Langata, Nairobi County.

“If you see me standing here today, it is the Lord. I can assure you it has been the prayers of many people. I would just want to start with what happened. Thank you Uncle for giving the whole story that you’ve given (of suspecting foul play in the death of Maurice after a pathologist found he had been strangled but reports claimed he fell on a flight of stairs and sustained head injuries that killed him). I will give the story according to what happened. My husband was a happy man. I didn’t need to say that because many people have talked about him because he makes friends everywhere he goes.

On Saturday, the 27^th of May, we had a sports day for Tiani, our daughter. We were supposed to both attend and his friend Patrick was also attending the sports day because his kids also attend Whitestar Academy. He told me he would be going to the sports day with us because they agreed to meet with Pato. We had a very good day at school, after they sat with Pato on their own and we sat on our own; and when the games began, the kids played. During the parents’ time, I went running and tried to be number one for the parents and when Tiani saw me, she ran to her dad and told him he also had to run. I took a video of him that day and it became the last memory I will ever have of him,” began Beatrice.

She thanked God she recorded that video because it was proof that her departed husband was a healthy man and never had any medical issues. They later went home and a neighbor took their kids for lunch then the deceased decided to meet up with friends. Their last phone call was when Maurice called Beatrice to tell her he had bumped into her friend who was coming to see her and even cracked a joke about her eating while walking on the road.

The entire evening, Chichi and his wife reportedly chatted on messages and their last text was at 11:49pm when she told him he had overdone his time away with his friend and should have already been back home.

“At 2am, I was called by the caretaker and told me that Tiani’s father was asleep on the stairs. I came out running and he was seated in such a way like he had fallen asleep and his head was hanging on the wall. I was shocked. I ran back to the house and the caretaker and watchman came and held him and I asked them if he was okay. There is another neighbor who lives above me and when she came up-, she asked if Maurice was okay. She jumped over him and went upstairs after asking if he was breathing.

I asked again if he was okay and the watchman told me he was not okay but the caretaker differed on this. I held onto the hope that Maurice was okay and so when they came up to hold him, I thought they were going to help him up the stairs to come to the house but when they moved him, his head swung sideways. He had no control of his head and so he left a blood mark on the wall from the wound he had at the back of his head. We had not seen he had a wound so when I asked what that was, we lit a torch and saw he had a cut on his head,” continued Beatrice.

She found that his hands were already cold but his body was warm. As she shook, wondering whether he was okay, it was suggested that he should be taken to the hospital instead of the house. She called for a taxi, changed her clothes and came back to have him taken to the car. When he was held up, his head fell and hung backwards. The caretaker believed Maurice he was still breathing and this gave Beatrice hope that he would be okay.

He was rushed to Shree Hospital and because she was told he was breathing, she was confident he was just unconscious. She ran to the reception where she was directed to a wheelchair and they wheeled him into a room. She returned to pay for the taxi and when she returned, she asked the doctor if Maurice was okay only to be told he wasn’t. There were machines all over Maurice’s body and the doctor came with a stethoscope to examine him. She was then told Maurice had passed away.

In an earlier Nairobi News report, Maurice’s uncle suspected foul play after a pathologist said he had been strangled and this was the cause of his death. Police are currently investigating the death even as the deceased was buried at his Sugoi home in Uasin Gishu County on June 10, 2023.

The late Maurice was born on October 30, 1978, in Kipsangui, Soy, and was the second born child among four other siblings. The late Maurice and Beatrice met in 2014 and married in 2016. They were blessed with one child, Tiani Kavochi Chichi.

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