NAIROBI, Kenya – Fresh details from phone records and eyewitness accounts have cast doubt on the official police narrative surrounding the death of businessman and former MP Cyrus Jirongo, whose fatal road crash near Naivasha was initially reported as a routine head-on collision.
According to a forensic audit commissioned by Jirongo’s friends, his final confirmed phone call places him in Karen, Nairobi, shortly after 11 p.m. on Friday — more than 150 kilometres away from where his wrecked vehicle was later found in the early hours of Saturday.
Jirongo died at around 2:15 a.m. after his Mercedes-Benz E350 collided with a bus along the Nairobi–Nakuru highway near Karai, Naivasha. Police said he was travelling from Nakuru towards Nairobi when the crash occurred.
However, a reconstruction of his final hours presents a timeline that appears inconsistent with that account.
Final meeting in Karen
On Friday night, shortly after Jamhuri Day celebrations, Jirongo personally reached out to National Assembly Speaker Moses Wetang’ula.
“Papa, I want us to meet,” Jirongo told him in a phone call, according to the Speaker.
About an hour later, the two longtime political allies met at a restaurant in Karen, where they talked and reflected late into the evening.
Wetang’ula said he left the meeting at around 9.30 p.m., believing it was simply another routine conversation with a familiar figure in Kenya’s political landscape.
By morning, that ordinary meeting had become a haunting final memory.
“I woke up to messages saying Cyrus was no more,” Wetang’ula said, adding that it remains unclear what business Jirongo would have had in Naivasha during those brief nighttime hours before deciding to return.
“Today you are here, tomorrow you are gone,” the Speaker said, describing death’s timing as “the secret God has kept from human beings.”
Last Confirmed Phone Call
At 10:58 p.m., former Vihiga Senator George Khaniri called Jirongo. According to Khaniri, Jirongo was at Karen Oasis, having tea with National Assembly Speaker Moses Wetang’ula.
“He told me he was done and was heading home,” Khaniri said, adding that they had a scheduled meeting the following day.
Phone records show the call ended at 11:03 p.m. Jirongo’s caretaker, Josephat Idoli, corroborated this account, saying supper had been prepared at Jirongo’s Gigiri residence — a drive of roughly 10 to 15 kilometres from Karen.
This is the last confirmed location of Jirongo while alive.
Yet, less than three hours later, his body was found inside his vehicle on a highway leading from Nakuru to Nairobi, near Naivasha.
“There is no logical explanation for him to be in Naivasha if he left Karen to go home,” Khaniri said. “Unless someone took him there.”
Friends describe Jirongo as a cautious and methodical individual who would rather stop and rest than embark on an impulsive overnight drive, particularly ahead of an important engagement.
Conflicting routes and unanswered gaps
Police maintain that Jirongo was travelling from Nakuru to Nairobi at the time of the crash. But that route would require him to have been in Nakuru earlier — a claim not supported by phone data, witnesses, or family accounts.
No evidence has emerged to show that Jirongo went home to Gigiri and later decided to travel to Western Kenya.
His wife only learned of the accident at around 3:23 a.m., when she called Khaniri after receiving news of the crash.
The lack of a clear travel itinerary has intensified calls for further investigation.
Eyewitness accounts complicate the picture
Witnesses at Eagol Petrol Station near the crash site told investigators that Jirongo’s vehicle appeared to be moving in the wrong direction shortly before the collision.
According to their accounts, the car bypassed the fuel pumps, made a sudden turn, and merged into the path of an oncoming Climax bus — resulting in the head-on crash described by police.
However, the Mercedes reportedly sustained significant rear-left damage prior to the final impact, raising questions about whether the vehicle had been involved in an earlier collision.
A petrol attendant also claimed Jirongo was slumped in his seat when attempts were made to open the car door, suggesting he may have already been incapacitated before the fatal crash.
Political weight and lingering suspicions
Jirongo, a powerful political figure during the Moi era, had in recent months re-emerged in national politics and was known for his outspoken criticism of political rivals.
That background has fuelled speculation, particularly after claims by an officer at the scene that Jirongo may have been carrying a firearm — an item that was never logged among the recovered exhibits. Police have not confirmed whether such a weapon existed.
Meanwhile, the bus driver involved in the crash, Tirus Kamau, has given a public account of the incident.
Some leaders, including Saboti MP Caleb Amisi, have questioned the timing and manner in which the statement was released, arguing that key facts should emerge through formal investigative processes.
Calls for independent evidence
The family and close associates of Jirongo are now demanding the release of CCTV footage along his suspected route, vehicle data records, and a comprehensive autopsy report.
Until those details are made public, two parallel narratives remain: the official version of a tragic traffic accident, and an alternative account marked by unexplained movements, conflicting damage reports, and unanswered questions.
For now, the death of Jirongo remains unresolved — a case defined not only by twisted metal on a dark highway, but by a journey that, according to those closest to him, never made sense in the first place.
