By REUBEN OLITA
June 24, 2026| When Naomi Murunga boarded a vehicle to Eldoret on February 2, 2025, she had no idea she was speaking to her husband for the last time.
Along the journey, she kept in touch with former Malaba Deputy OCS Gerald Tobias Murunga Opaye. Their conversation was ordinary — the kind shared by couples separated by work and distance.
“He told me he wanted to get a haircut and later watch football. He promised he would call me after returning home,” Naomi told Busia Magistrate’s Court on Wednesday.
That call never came.
After arriving in Eldoret at 7.22 p.m., Naomi waited for her husband’s call. Hours later, shortly after 11 p.m., she sent him a text message.
There was no reply.
Then, at around 4 a.m., her phone rang.
Her sister-in-law, Faith, was crying.
“She asked me whether I had received the disturbing news,” Naomi testified.
Like many families in today’s digital age, Naomi said she first learnt of her husband’s death through social media.
Her emotional testimony marked the opening of a public inquest into Murunga’s death before Busia Chief Magistrate Paul Biwott.
The proceedings were initiated by the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (ODPP) after investigations failed to conclusively establish the circumstances surrounding his death.
“We want to establish what happened, and anybody found culpable will face the appropriate charges,” Chief Magistrate Biwott said.
Still reeling from the shock, Naomi travelled to Bungoma LifeCare Mortuary to see her husband one final time.
By then, his body had already been embalmed.
She noticed that Murunga was still wearing his wedding ring and that his spectacles appeared intact.
Family members later handed over his clothes to her, including innerwear, a vest, T-shirt, hooded jacket, cap and jeans. Some of the garments bore stains.
But even in her grief, Naomi noticed things that disturbed her.
She told the court that a black hooded jacket she had surrendered to investigators was missing from the exhibits produced before court. Also missing, she said, were her husband’s wallet and spectacles.
Chief Magistrate Biwott acknowledged the concern and expressed hope that the items would be produced by witnesses in subsequent hearings.
The court also heard testimony from businessman and politician Daniel Mogoria, who described Murunga as a man who had recently sought help from relatives over challenges he was facing at work.
During a family gathering a week before his death, Mogoria said, Murunga had spoken about difficulties with his superiors and hoped to secure a transfer.
Days later, the family received news that he had died.
Mogoria rushed from Kisumu after being informed that his uncle had allegedly been involved in a road accident.
However, several developments surrounding the death left the family with lingering questions.
According to his testimony, officers from Malaba Police Station had already visited Murunga’s home before relatives fully understood what had happened. He further told the court that the OCS facilitated the transfer of the body to LifeCare Mortuary, paid a KSh3,000 deposit and arranged for cleaning and embalming.
For Murunga’s mother, the pain was unbearable.
“The deceased’s mother was emotional and demanded to know who killed her son,” Mogoria testified.
After viewing the body, she reportedly questioned how her son had died, saying she had not observed visible head injuries.
Mogoria also questioned claims that Murunga had been heavily intoxicated before riding his motorcycle.
“If that was the case, they should have prevented him from riding or arranged alternative transport,” he told the court.
The family further questioned whether the pothole blamed for the accident could have caused fatal injuries and raised concerns over the embalming of the body before relatives had viewed it.
Those concerns prompted them to seek an independent pathologist.
Mogoria also revealed that for four consecutive nights after the death, unknown individuals visited his Amagoro home between 9 p.m. and midnight, prompting him to report the matter to police and record a statement with the DCIO Amagoro.
As the search for answers continues, one memory still lingers for Naomi — the final promise her husband made before they said goodbye.
He said he would call her back.
He never did.
The inquest resumes on October 5, 2026, with more witnesses expected to testify.