GEOFFREY MBUTHIA ENTERTAINMENT SUB-EDITOR

26 March 2023

• The family is disputing the claim that he might have taken his own life.

On Thursday this week, Kenyans were shocked after learning of the death of popular Bungoma artist and political mobiliser Joseph Kubende.

It was claimed that the 42-year-old had fallen from the 4th floor of a Roysambu building in Roysambu Constituency in Kasarani.

Despite efforts from well-wishers and friends to rush him to hospital, Kubende succumbed to his injuries at the Pangani hospital, just four days after celebrating his birthday.

The family has now come out to address the death and has firmly refuted the claims that he took his own life.

Family representative David Shakama who spoke to the media revealed that the late Kubende was about to leave Kenya for the United States after securing a job there.

Shakama explained that their late kin was in the country meeting up with friends after being on official duty in Rwanda.

"When he came to Kenya, he went to meet his friends and they are telling us that he was locked in a house and still jumped from the building,” he said.

That's not all. The family rep said that they had a suspicion that the death might have come because of the late's political affiliations.

“We understand that he might have been targeted by a few individuals, but we want to know the truth, and we want to know the people who were with him."

Shakama also declared that the family would not bury the Bungoma politician until another postmortem was done.

“We are not going to bury Joseph if the government will not tell us the truth,” he said.

Other than Shakama, other leaders from Western also spoke to the media expressing their dissatisfaction with police efforts to unearth what had really happened.

“Why are the police not using these cameras to arrest people involved in the case? There are no arrests and they have no recorded statements,” Bumula Member of Parliament (MP) Jack Wamboka asked.

Didmus Barasa, the Kimilili MP also disclosed that he had written to the Directorate of Criminal Investigations(DCI) to transfer the case from Kasarani police station to the DCI headquarters.