Detectives from the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) are looking into the death of Elizabeth Githinji, a preacher who was found dead at the home of Kikuyu gospel musician Mirugi Dishon.
Mirugi’s ex-flame, Elizabeth, paid him a visit at his Kahawa West home on Saturday, according to a statement recorded at Kiamumbi police station on Saturday.
He told the officers that she had brought his suit from Nakuru but that when she arrived at his house, she decided to clean both his house and his clothes because they were filthy.
He went on to say that while she was cleaning, he left the house to run errands on Thika Road.
According to the statement, he returned home soon after because he couldn’t reach Elizabeth on her phone.
Mirungi claims that when he returned home, he discovered Elizabeth in his wardrobe, appearing to have hung herself with a bedsheet.
He claims he untied the body and transferred it to his car before driving to the Jacaranda Maternity Home.
According to the police statement, medics at Jacaranda refused to pick up Elizabeth’s body because she was already dead.
He then drove to Kiamumbi police station with the body still in his car, but officers told him to report the incident to Kahawa West.
Officers at Kahawa West police station refused to pick up the body and instead advised him to report the incident to Kasarani police station.
The situation was no different at Kasarani police station, where officers also declined to pick up the body, explaining to him that he should have reported the discovery immediately.
He was allowed to take the body to the Kenyatta University Mortuary on Saturday evening after shuffling between police stations with the body in his car.
The musician returned to Kasarani police station on Sunday to record a statement about Elizabeth’s death, accompanied by DCI homicide detectives who have taken over the investigations.
Possible love triangle
On Tuesday, March 21, it emerged that the Nakuru based Pastor had visited the Kikuyu Gospel to Mend their relationship.
Neighbours, friends and members of Mr Mirugi’s Flying Eagle International Ministry said the couple had been seen together a number of times and everything about them seemed fine until Wanjiru’s shocking death.
The two met last year in August and fell in love.
A detective who spoke to Nation Media said Pastor Elizabeth Wanjiru left Nakuru for Nairobi with an aim of sorting out some differences with him.
“They had not known each other for a very long time but had some issues, it was because of this that the woman left Nakuru for Nairobi to have a word with Mr Mirugi with the hope of making things right.”
He pointed to a possible love triangle because the musician has also been linked with a senior manager of a real estate company.
A police source said the fact that Dishon referred to Pastor Elizabeth as his ex girlfriend raised the question why the musician welcomed her to his house and even left her there.
Who is Dishon Mirungi
Dishon, popularly known within Kikuyu Music Scene for his gospel hits Matiribu and ‘
Kuguru Kugondoku started his music career in 2003.
He had hoped his athletic ability in sports like volleyball and football would lead him to a career in the Kenya army. As fate would have it, it never happened.
His desire to come to Nairobi was borne out of hardships he faced in his Ngano home village, Nyahururu where he was a casual labourer in people’s farms after high school. In Dandora Nairobi, he started a small shop with earnings he had saved in the village.
From a capital of Ksh 18,000 it grew to a stock of Ksh 80,000, life as a young businessman for Mirugi looked promising even his peers complemented him.
The growth of that budding business stalled when the landlord asked him to vacate since he wanted to start a butchery business.
Since Mirugi’s shop was next to a bar, the landlord figured he could make money selling roast meat to bar patrons if Mirugi moved.
Faced with dull business future Mirugi knew if nothing changed, he would have to go back to the village to work as farmhand.
That terrified him to the core, to avoid it he sold all his stock uncertain of what to do next. Friends urged him to do driving but saw no financial security in it.
Incidentally, while he had the shop, as a hobby he composed songs but never took it seriously though it came natural. Two of his former customers, Muhiko and Ezekiel Njagi of ‘Uhinga ni Design’ song were prominent Kikuyu musicians in River Road Nairobi.
He turned to them with the songs he had, sensing his raw talent they encouraged and connected him to Wanjohi wa Keyboard a producer.
“I had faced lots of troubles by then and the prospect of hawking music didn’t faze me,” said Mirugi as long as it got him his daily bread.
In 2004 he sang he released his first CD ‘Ninguria Kanyamu’ (I’ll eat something). What amused him was his gift of song writing never got exhausted he wrote more songs and began to see music as a career.
He aggressively hawked the CD as far as Isiolo, Nakuru and Mombasa. As he lacked money for a portable CD player, he sung to prospective customers what was in the CDs.
For his efforts He sold 15,000 copies. Every little money, he earned he recorded.
“Sometimes customers pitied me and bought and encouraged me,” said Mirugi.
The album didn’t receive any media airplay. Being a new musician; Mirugi never knew how to get it to Coro, Inooro and Kameme FM the three Kikuyu Media stations.
From the savings he released his second album ‘Kuguru Kugondoku’ (sprained leg) in 2007. The song, ‘Kuguru Kugondoku’ was first played at Inooro FM in 2009 after he had hawked the album for two years.
“That was just GOD’s time and people loved the song,” said Mirugi. With time all the other two stations played the song.
The song opened avenues for Mirugi to be invited in churches, crusades and other events on regularly. With a steady income streams he recorded his third album Matiribu (seasons).
The title song ‘Matiribu’ driven by melodious opening rock guitar riff in vein of Slash’s Sweet Child of Mine captured fans. It’s also a permanent fixture every Sunday 9:30pm at Inooro FM before the counseling show by Pastor JJ Gitahi.
Other hits from ‘Matiribu’ album include ‘Hau noho’ and ‘Uria Ngwika’ Currently Mirugi is finalizing his fourth album.
In his musical journey Mirugi’s influences are Muhiko, Muigai wa Njoroge and Ezekiel Mwangi who helped him navigate music production.
He estimates all his albums have sold around 20,000 copies but admits piracy has hit hard. To earn he relies on shows and laments after all the media airplay he is yet to get a cent from Music Copyright Society of Kenya.
“It’s impossible to live on CD sales,” said Mirugi.
Regardless, his experiences have served as catalysts for music compositions. His songs are inspired out of life experiences, troubles or what he sees.
‘Matiribu’ came out of his own experiences, at the bottom line the song concludes God is the only one who never leaves you in seasons of trouble.
