Musician Samuel Muchoki, popularly known as Samidoh, has rejected the narrative that his late nephew, Jeff Mwathi, died by suicide, telling a Nairobi court that the circumstances surrounding the death did not support such a conclusion.
Testifying in the ongoing inquest, Samidoh said he had known Mwathi since childhood and described him as a designer who also sold clothes. He recounted the events of February 23, 2023, when Mwathi’s body was discovered outside DJ Fatxo’s apartment in Kasarani.
Samidoh told the court that DJ Fatxo, who hails from the same Nyandarua County, was his musical mentee. He stressed that he had no political or personal interest in the DJ’s downfall, stating, “DJ Fatxo was my mentee. I supported him musically and had no mission to destroy him. I only want to know how my nephew died.”
According to Samidoh, he reported the incident to police at 8 a.m. the next morning. DJ Fatxo arrived at Kasarani Police Station around 11 a.m. The musician faulted the handling of the scene, saying it was not secured and several people were already present when he arrived.
He estimated Mwathi’s death occurred between 5 a.m. and 6 a.m., with police arriving about an hour later. At the scene, he saw three women and two men, noting that none of the women was Mwathi’s girlfriend. He cited witness statements indicating DJ Fatxo left the apartment with the three women while Mwathi remained behind.
Samidoh also testified that CCTV footage showed Mwathi’s body falling from a height. However, he expressed dissatisfaction with the first postmortem results and sought a second opinion from the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI), backed by fellow artists.
Describing what he saw during the second postmortem, Samidoh said Mwathi’s body had no shoes, his trousers were half-worn, and his underwear was around his ankles. He questioned the suicide theory, noting that if Mwathi had jumped from the window, the bed positioned nearby would have been disturbed. Instead, he found the bed neat, clean, and without footmarks on the window details he argued made suicide unlikely.
The court continues to hear testimonies as investigations into Mwathi’s death proceed.
