Police Boss Who Grilled Pastor Ng'ang'a Over Fatal Road Crash Dies

Charlton Murithi, the former director of personnel at the National Police Headquarters, is dead.

Police reports have indicated that Murithi passed away on Friday, August 19 at 3 am at the Kenyatta National Hospital (KNH).

At the time of his demise, he had been admitted over cancer-related complications. Murithi was flown to South Africa three months ago for therapy before returning to Kenya where he was admitted to KNH, after a few improvements.

Former police boss Charlton Murithi. /FILE

A condolence book has since been opened at police headquarters for those wishing to pay their respects to Murithi.

He was the director of Kenya National Focal Point on Illicit Small Arms and Light Weapons, which is under the Office of the President but being run by the police.

He had been a Senior Assistant Inspector General of Police (SAIG), a rank below the Deputy Inspector General of police.

He also served as the director of the Internal Affairs Unit (AIU), commandant of traffic operations, and Provincial Police Officer in Northeastern among other directorates of the police.

Murithi was in 2015 tasked to investigate a July 26 fatal road accident said to have involved pastor James Ng’ang’a, an evangelist at Sasa TV.

He told reporters at the time that the police had taken a statement from Apostle Ng’ang’a as part of efforts to establish whether or not he was behind the wheel of the red Range Rover involved in the accident that claimed the life of Mercy Njeri and those of “not less than eight independent witnesses.”

He however declined to indicate what the preliminary findings were and if indeed police in Tigoni had deliberately sought to cover up Ng’ang’a’s alleged involvement in the accident.

Once he had “analysed” the evidence collected from the scene with his oversight, Muriithi sought to assure “anyone found culpable, irrespective of their standing in society, must face the full force of the law.”

Muriithi and his team were tasked by then-Inspector General of Police Joseph Boinnet to re-investigate the accident after the information provided to him by officers in Tigoni was challenged by members of the public.

Through his Twitter account, Boinnet had put one Simon Maina Kuria behind the wheel of the Range Rover that collided with the saloon car in which Mercy Njeri was a passenger and which her husband Martin Mbugwa Ndungu was driving.

An accident in 2015 involving Pastor Ng'ang'a's Range Rover. /FILE

But reported witness accounts disclosed that it was Ng’ang’a who jumped out of the driver’s side of the Range Rover when the accident occurred, fleeing the scene.

It was also reported that he was racing another vehicle, and driving on the wrong side of the road at high speed in the alleged effort to win.