Jowie Irungu’s father, Julius Mwangi Irungu, has died, aged 64. Mr. Mwangi died at the Nakuru Level Five Hospital Annex over the weekend after a fierce battle with cancer. Anastacia Thaama, Jowie’s mum, says her husband was being taken to Nairobi for treatment, but his condition sharply deteriorated, prompting the family to rush him to the Nakuru Level Five Hospital Annex for stabilization, but unfortunately, he died hours later.
The deceased leaves behind a widow and four children, including Jowie, who is serving a death sentence at the Kamiti Prison for the murder of businesswoman Monica Kimani, with one of his daughters revealing that his son’s conviction might have led to his health worsening. “He used to weep over Jowie’s conviction. Before his health sharply deteriorated, he had asked us to make plans on how he could travel to Kamiti to see Jowie. It is sad he has died without seeing him as he wished,” his daughter says.
Mr. Mwangi, in previous interviews with the media, had opened up about the pain he was in since the conviction of Jowie in Ms. Kimani’s brutal murder in September 2018. “My son was unfairly tried and convicted; they made sure the world was against him,” he said then.
Ms. Kimani was found murdered in her Lamuria Gardens apartment in Nairobi’s Kilimani area on the night of September 19, 2018, with her throat slit and her body abandoned in a bath tub under running water. Jowie was sentenced to death on March 13, 2024, after being found guilty of the gruesome murder, with Judge Grace Nzioka citing overwhelming evidence against Jowie.
Jowie has been informed of the news.