Inside South C house of death: Murderer kills employer’s siblings, steals from them
On October 24, 2011, Mohamed Anwar left his two siblings at his house in South C estate in Nairobi with his domestic worker Aggrey Amugune as he went to the nearby Mosque for 1 pm prayers only to return and find them unconscious, each in a pool of blood.
The two later died in hospital.
Anwar had left Amina Falzidin and Mohamed Afzal full of life, but he returned one hour later to find them in his sister’s bedroom writhing in pain, all with similar deep cuts on their heads.
He had noticed that the house was unusually quiet as he came in and that his food was not on the table as usual.
Anwar entered the kitchen and saw some chapati flour mixture that his sister was to cook on the table. Concerned that there was a problem, he walked towards the bedrooms, where he heard very heavy breathing in his sister’s room.
He opened the door and found his brother lying on the floor and his sister on the bed. Both of them were bleeding heavily and were in critical condition.
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Blood was all over the room, on the floor, and on the walls and ceiling.
Amugune, who was supposed to be with them in the house, was missing.
Anwar called in his other brother and neighbors, who took Falzidin to South C Medical Centre and their brother Afzal to the Mater Hospital in South B, where they succumbed to their injuries.
When pathologist Dr. Muriuki Ndegwa conducted a postmortem of the two deceased soon after the attack, he found that Falzidin had deep cuts on the head and Afzal had multiple bruises and cassations on the face, head, and upper arms.
Their clothes were blood-stained. Dr. Ndegwa concluded that in both cases, their death was caused by severe head injuries due to blunt force trauma.
The matter was then reported to the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) Langata offices as a robbery case with violence, and investigations started.
Search for Amugune also started.
The next day on October 25, 2011, Amugune called his churchmate Derickson Khamati at 7 am and told him that he needed to speak to their pastor Geoffrey Maina. He requested the pastor to call him through Khamati’s phone, which he did.
When Maina called, Amugune told him that he was in Westlands and required assistance as he was stranded.
Amugune told Maina that some people of Asian origin had hired him to transport cocaine to Wilson Airport at the cost of Sh3,000.
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He said he had done the job but was not paid.
He said his boss threatened to shoot him and chased him from home at South C, where he worked, and as he was leaving, he saw a piece of wood outside the house which he picked up and used to hit the boss and his son, at which point he ran away.
Pastor Maina of Calvary Holiness and Restoration church advised Amugune to report to the police that his life was in danger, but he flatly refused, claiming that he feared retribution from his boss.
Amugune also told Maina that he had gotten a job at a city restaurant and was to report on duty that day and requested assistance to relocate from the plot where he was living to a place on Wanyee Road in Kawangware, Nairobi.
Maina assisted Amugune in relocating to a house behind Kenya Bus (KBS) terminus.
Five days later, Amugune informed Maina that he was traveling to his rural home in Western Kenya and that he remained there for one and months before returning toward the end of December 2011.
During this period, the DCI obtained Amugune’s details from the National Registration Bureau, which indicated that he was from Kakamega County Ikolomani Location, Kalulumi village.
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Three officers led by constable Hillary Kamuyu visited Amugune’s rural home, where they were told he resided at Kawangware Estate in Nairobi and were given a mobile phone number.
They obtained his photograph from his mother to assist them in identifying him.
The mobile number enabled Safaricom, the service provider, to supply data that indicated that Amugune was in Kawangware.
Detectives went to his house but found it empty, and a visit to his local church also did not yield anything.
The disbanded Flying Squad Unit was roped in to help trace Mr. Amugune, and the detectives from the unit arrested him in September 2012 after being on the run for 11 months.
Pastor Maina was also arrested after Amugune implicated him, and both were charged with robbery with violence.
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But the case was withdrawn before Amugune was arrested and charged with the murder of Amina Falzidin and Mohamed Afzal in 2013.
He denied the charges, and the trial was held before the then high court judge Jessie Lessit who found him guilty and sentenced him to hang on September 15, 2016.
The prosecution had called up more than 10 witnesses, including former Langata DCI chief James Manuni.
Justice Lessit found that the fact that Amugune had gone into hiding for almost a year was circumstantial evidence that he was a guilty mind.
Amugune is serving a death sentence after losing an appeal he had lodged before the court of appeal after appellate judges Kathurima M’inoti, Agnes Murgor, and Sankale Ole Kantai on September 25, 2020.
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The judges upheld the conviction by Lady Justice Lessit and retained the penalty served on Amugune.
“Notwithstanding that we were not requested to review the sentence, we note that in its ruling, the trial court observed that the appellant specifically instructed his counsel not to mitigate on his behalf, and he did not himself mitigate,” the appellate judges ruled.
“This was despite the brutal and callous murder of the two deceased brother and sister. In view of the appellant’s unwillingness to mitigate and the clear absence of remorse, and taking into account the factors and circumstances of the case, we find that a review of the sentence of death to be unnecessary.”
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