This archive report was first published on 5 May 2020.
On May 5, 2020, police in Lamu arrested Omar Lali, a 50-year-old man who had been living with Tecra Muigai, the daughter of Keroche Breweries CEO Tabitha Karanja, at the time of her death.
Muigai died on Saturday while being treated in Nairobi after falling down the stairs at their apartment in Shella on Lamu Island.
According to neighbours, Muigai and Lali lived as a couple, and the two had been in a relationship for over a year.
Neighbours described Muigai as a party-loving woman who lived lavishly, and sources indicated that she had a swelling in the brain, consistent with falling from a raised place or blunt trauma to the skull.
Lali was arrested in the apartment where he lived with Muigai, and residents who know them said they had lived together at a local hotel since March this year before moving into the apartment.
Reports indicated that Muigai may have fallen down the stairs due to intoxication, and Lali was found asleep and drunk when neighbours went to inform him of what had befallen his lover.
Residents who helped Lali take the unconscious woman to King Fahad Hospital on the island on April 30 said the couple had staggered into the house that night and appeared to have been drinking.
“We have been seeing Tecra in Lamu, but we did not know she is the daughter of Keroche Breweries owners. She loved partying,” said a resident who did not wish to be named.
