Shock and grief engulfed residents of Mirira in Kiharu, Murang’a county after the decomposing body of a Form Two student was found in a thicket on Wednesday evening.

David Mutugi reportedly went missing on Monday last week after he failed return home from school.
According to Mutigi’s sister Immaculate Wanja, his sister, her brother went to school as usual but he never came back.

She added that she went to the school the following day to establish why Mutugi had not returned home the previous day and was told that he had been sent home to get a calculator he had allegedly stolen from a fellow student.

Efforts to look for him in the neighborhood were futile and calls to other relatives did not bear fruits.
“I was told he had been sent home to buy a calculator on allegations that he had stolen one from another student which was not the case,” said Wanja.

“He had told me he had misplaced a calculator he had borrowed from his friend but the teacher did not give him a chance to explain himself,” she added.

Wednesday evening, Mutugi’s grandmother Nancy Mugure in the company of another family member went to a nearby forest to fetch firewood only to be hit by a strong stench.

Curious to know where it was coming from, they searched the bushes only to come across Mutugi’s decomposing body. Mugure said that by the side of the body was a small bottle believed to have been containing poison which he could have drunk to take his own life.

“We first saw the pullover while his body was a few step away with some body parts missing,” she said.

“He also had the leave out note in his pocket indicating why he had been sent home,” she added.

Mugure said the family did not have the money to conduct a postmortem on the body as required before they could bury the deceased. Murang’a County Commissioner Joshua Nkanatha recently raised alarm over increased cases of suicide among