Just as in life, former tycoon industrialist Wilfred Murungi was reclusive even in death. When he died in 2019, there were more policemen than mourners at his funeral.
Though the villagers at his ancestral Maara constituency in Tharaka Nithi County had wished to give one of their own a befitting send-off, they were kept at bay by the policemen who had been hired by the family to ensure that the tycoon is buried privately.
Two choppers carrying Murungi’s body and another one carrying his children and clergy, landed in a nearby primary school. The body was then loaded in a waiting Mercedes Benz hearse and transported almost one kilometers to his home, his final resting place. All this time, the amused and disappointed villagers could not be allowed in as the police kept them at bay.
Even those who had been hired to dig his grave had been asked to leave the compound only to be allowed in when the burial was underway. The former billionaire’s grave was almost half-filled by the time they were allowed in.
In 2012, when his wife died, the same scenario was experienced. Not even Murungi himself attended the funeral. He immediately left for Nairobi once the body had landed in the village on a chopper!
Considered one of the richest people in this village at the time, Murungi worked as engineer for British American Tobacco ( BAT) before quitting to set-up Mastermind Tobacco Company, the maker of Superman brand of cigarettes.
But his life was more of a mystery as he always maintained privacy. Even in death, his village mates could not be allowed to view his body.