Police believed that a teacher whose body was discovered nailed inside a coffin in his rental room in Ihururu village in Nyeri County could have nailed himself in before dying by suicide.
The body of Mr Joseph Gathogo, a computer and biology teacher at Muhoya Secondary School, was discovered in the rented house of his two-roomed semi-permanent rental room nailed in an enclosed coffin.
He had varnished on December 23 after supervising Form Four examinations at Muhoya Secondary School where he was attached.
Preliminary facts indicated that the coffin was sealed using a torch and a bottle of what police believed is poison nearby, police said that Mr Gathogo could have died by suicide.
According to Tetu Sub-County Police boss Philip Mwania, Gathogo is believed to have entered the coffin through a stool, lifted the coffin lid and nailed himself inside using a hammer and torch that was discovered near his body.
Gathogo had used a thick black polythene paper inside the boat-like coffin and had also poured used some chemicals.
Villagers remember him as a chain smoker with a soft-spoken personality
Speaking to the press yesterday, friends and neighbours who recounted how the deceased told them.how he started picking materials used to build the boat-shaped grave and coffin.
In 2017, his landlord Daniel Kiama with whom they lived with in the same compound, recounted that he cut a tree to sell timber.
It was then that Gathogo took a few pieces of wood arguing that he was making a wardrobe.
According to the landlord, Joseph Gathogo never received any visitors nor had any known lady in the last 19 years he stayed as his tenant.
His neighbours described him as reserved as he hardly spoke about his personal life but was a lover of football, old-school music and politics.
Content created and supplied by: Updater (via Opera News )
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