27-year-old Oscar Owino worked as a banker in Nyali town, Mombasa. The young man had won a study scholarship in Australia and had his bags almost packed and ready for the journey.
However, a colleague’s birthday party night would turn out to be his last night in the world. The colleague, identified as Edwin Matengo, had thrown a birthday party at a popular hotel in Nyali town.
Prior to the party, Owino had made 9 calls in 7 minutes to Matengo, all of which went unanswered. On the night of the party, after enjoying themselves, Edwin and several other colleagues excused themselves to go home and rest.
Owino remained at the party, in the company of 39-year-old Phenny Kisassati whom he was allegedly dating. The two spent some time at the place before retiring to Royal Apartments where the lady stayed.
“They stayed for some time before they left together, when they left they were all fine until the next day when we were informed of what happened,” said a staff working at the club.
The DCI attached to the Mombasa offices revealed that there was a third person who joined Phenny Kisassati and Oscar Owino at the hotel on that fateful night. Real identity however remains hidden.
The hotel management denied any knowledge of a violent incident that happened on Matengo’s birthday party night. A follow-up investigation revealed that Kisasati frequently visited Owino’s rental in Bamburi, supposing that they were in a love affair.
“I have seen him several times in the company of a woman who drives a Nissan Cube,” Owino’s neighbour said, while the family’s lawyer Eric Benjamin clarified that Kisasati indeed drives a similar vehicle described.
It is not known what happened on the night Owino visited Ms Phenny’s place. According to her account, she claims to have left Owino on the balcony area sipping more drinks and taking in the cold air of the night, while she went to sleep.
“She informed the police that the two had attended a party at the Maasai Beach Hotel where they had drinks until late hours before retiring to her apartment where she excused herself and went to sleep, leaving the deceased on the balcony while he continued to have more drinks,” read the police report handed to Nation journalists.
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After a while, she decided to go check on him and find out what took him so long to join her, only to find him missing. She told the Nyali police that she made her way downstairs and found Owino’s body lying dead. In panic, she raised alarms waking up the entire building.
This was at around 1 am. Oscar Owino’s sister made a report to the police at around 4 a.m., as per the police station OB. However, there have been inconsistencies in reports made on the OB.
One claims that Oscar’s body was taken to the Pandya Hospital Mortuary, which is not the case as it was taken to Coast General Hospital mortuary.
In addition, police officers stated that the deceased was 36 years old. Oscar was 27 years old and his ID, which was in his possession at the time of death, could’ve confirmed that.
A post-mortem report conducted on Owino’s body showed that Owino had died of cardiovascular arrests due to trauma to the chest causing lung perforation. The body however was not showing any impact or broken bones.
One of Oscar’s colleagues asked the family to accept his death and move on so that they could get benefits. Furthermore, suspicion emerged after the family attempted to review CCTV footage but DCI officers declined.
The family, now left with close to zero options, have written to DCI Headquarters Boss Mohammed Amin seeking closure as to how their son had died. They suspect there was foul play in how the investigations were carried out.
“Please treat this letter as an appeal and extreme concern about the manner in which we, as the family of the deceased, have witnessed and understood the ongoing investigations,” they wrote.
The real question still lingers, what happened to Oscar Owino on the night he visited his girlfriend’s Royal Apartments?