Who is Samuel Mugo and why was he shot dead at point-blank in Mirema?

The life of Samuel Mugo Mugota, the victim of the Mirema, Kasarani shooting incident was one that was filled with intricacies, mysteries, secrets and crime.

This is clear in the report the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) unearthed from their crime database which continues to baffle many Kenyans and security organs as well.

Details have emerged on how the slain thug Mugota recruited over 50 beautiful women who were deployed in major cities to steal from revellers patronizing popular entertainment spots. 

These women would go around administering a drug that is usually prescribed to mentally unstable patients at Mathare Mental Hospital.

The drug known in the 'mchele' world as ‘Tamuu’ is categorized into four. tamuu red, tamuu green, tamuu white and tamuu blue.

The drug was administered in doses, depending on one’s immunity. Men with high blood pressure would not wake up after the first dose.

Such are the women whom Mugota deployed in different towns in shifts. In Nairobi, they frequented Club Switch in Kasarani, Whisky River along Kiambu road, Red Lion in Ruaka, Oklahoma Choma Zone, Lacascada, Aroma, Backroom, Mkwanju, Dragon and all the clubs along Kamiti road from Roysambu, 44 and Zimmerman. 

If a man was very careful with his drink, the ladies would offer him an energy drink, claiming that he was too drunk and not up to the task ahead.

This would be followed by soft smooches that would stupefy the man in minutes. If that trick failed to work, they would escort a man, especially a single one, to his house and prepare coffee or scrambled eggs for the man to eat.

After a successful harvest targeting clubs in a town, Mugota would redeploy them to a different town for cover.

Interestingly, none of the men who reported being stupefied remembered being intimate with any of the women.

Even those found wearing condoms in their vehicles, the damsels would do it to deter the man from seeking help immediately after they woke up, by driving to a mobile service provider’s shop.

The unforgiving daughters of Eve would even disappear with the victim’s pair of trousers, as this gave them time to deliver the stolen items and seep the bank accounts dry. 

To avoid any suspicion, the women who were well briefed on their assignment ordered expensive liquor, convincing the male patrons on nearby tables that they were ordinary revellers moistening their thirsty throats.

Their bills would however be forwarded to Mugota, who would clear them from his base of operation in Roysambu or Githurai 44.

The thug who operated in over six cars, among them Nissan Ex-trails, Toyota Fielders, Honda CRVs among others was always on the move. 

He ensured the women lived in one estate in Gatunda along Kamiti corner and another one in Kahawa Wendani where he would visit them to collect stolen phones, Identity Cards and ATM Cards.

The women would then be paid handsomely, depending on how one had been industrious in a given night.

One of them who has since confessed and mended her ways owns a palatial home in one of the city’s posh estates. She currently preaches the good word. 

Once the mobile phone, SIM card and ATM cards were in his possession, he would then call mobile phone service providers' customer care agents, pretending to have forgotten his mobile money personal identification number and have it reset.

That would mark the beginning of one’s financial woes, since the thug would send all the money to his fraudulent bank accounts and to add salt to injury, take loans from as many mobile money lending applications as possible adding more troubles to the never-ending trials and tribulations of the boy child.

The high-tech phone scammer was so smart in his dealings that he left no trail of his transactions, by operating over 300 registered bank accounts, spread out across three leading banks.  

One morning, he approached over 100 youths in Embu posing as a government employee who was recruiting job seekers to work as casuals at the Lamu port and Mau Mau road construction.

After a sumptuous meal of nyama choma washed down with a drink of one’s choice, he told the clueless job seekers that they all needed new SIM cards and three bank accounts each from the leading banks. He helped them register the accounts and paid for their ATM cards.  

Later, he came back and asked them to register for mobile banking and use 1212 as the PIN number before collecting all the SIM cards, which he promised to deliver to the national Treasury, from where their salaries would be processed once they went to Lamu.

The happy youths complied and as he left, he asked them to ‘Cheza Chini’ lest their appointments were revoked.

That was the last time they ever saw the man and none dared to report until detectives arrested some of them for fraudulent transactions amounting to hundreds of thousands of shillings.

The youths who had never come across such colossal sums of money were dumbfounded when detectives realized they had been used as conduits and released them.

Armed with personal details from the young men and women, Mugota had over 300 bank accounts he was using for his transactions.

In one day, he was making over Sh 1 Million from administering 'mchele' to unsuspecting men.

He even recruited university students who would be paid up to Sh 5,000 for every bank account that was delivered. 

Undoubtedly, Mugota was well updated in his trade to the extent that he knew all the ATMs within the city and its environs without a CCVT camera.

To avoid detection, he introduced himself as a police inspector based in Kiambu, and Truecaller identified him as Inspector Morris-Kiambu.

Preliminary investigations show that he had fallen out with some of his partners, who fled to a neighbouring country immediately after the murder. Detectives are hot on their trail.

Mugota had been arraigned at Kiambu, Makadara, Milimani, Thika and other law courts frequently but found his way out, often by approaching the complainants and paying them back their money. The complainants would then disappear.