DJ Fatxo 4am call to woman moments before Jeff Mwathi’s death

Mugithi singer Lawrence Njuguna Wagura, popularly known as DJ Fatxo, called a woman at about 4 am asking to collect beauty products from her house moments before Jeff Mwathi is alleged to have thrown himself to death from his apartment house.

Beautician Felister Wairimu, on Monday, told an inquest into the death of Mwathi that DJ Fatxo called her and drove to her apartment along Lumumba Drive in Roysambu and collected the beauty products.

“He told me he was coming from a meeting at the Safari Park Hotel and wanted to collect the products because he would want to use them,” Wairimu told Milimani principal magistrate Rose Ndombi, who is presiding over the inquest hearing.

Wairimu sells beauty products and does home deliveries. DJ Fatxo had ordered the products 11 days earlier, and Wairimu kept them in her house.

She said DJ Fatxo called, but she did not pick up the phone until it rang a second time.

“I asked him why he was calling me that early. It was a bit of a surprise because he had never called me that early before, though he was my regular customer,” Wairimu said.

That was the morning of February 22, 2023.

It is also alleged that it was around the same time that interior designer Jeff Mwathi threw through the window from DJ Fatxo’s house at Redwood apartment in Roysambu and died.

Another witness, Faith Ndunge, however, said they were in DJ Fatxo’s house until around 4 am when he offered to drop them off at their house after a night of drinking.

DJ Fatxo had been drinking with Jeff and three women, including Ndunge, Faith Mutanu and another friend named Teresia.

Ndunge said she was jobless at the time and had left her place in Ruai for Mutanu’s shop in Roysambu.

She had gone there to help her with shopkeeping and also to catch up with her friend.

Later, Mutanu left the shop and asked to close after the day’s work. After work, Ndunge went to Mutanu’s house, where she found Teresia and together, Mutanu asked them to join her at Quiver Lounge along Thika Road for a drink that night.

“She told us to carry clothes that she could change and so we packed the clothes and took an Uber taxi to Quiver,” Ndunge said.

Mutane changed her clothes inside DJ Fatxo’s Subaru car before the trio joined him and Jeff Mwathi inside the club for drinks.

They indulged in drinking until about 3am when they left for DJ Fatxo’s house. Earlier, Mutanu had made an Uber request, but the DJ asked her to cancel.

“It was DJ Fatxo who was driving when we left the club with Mutanu sitting in front next to him. Myself, Teresia and Jeff sat at the back,” Ndunge said.

As the car drove past the diversion to Mutanu’s house, she asked DJ Fatxo where they were going.

“DJ Fatxo said he was taking her to see his house. When we got to the parking at his apartment, he insisted that we get to the house, saying it was not good for visitors to come and fail to get to the house,” Ndunge said.

Ndunge said once inside the house, she prepared Shisha and partook of it as both DJ Fatxo and Jeff sang some Mugithi songs.

“DJ Fatxo was on the guitar as he sang. We only took water and a little Shisha because we were already drunk,” she said.

It was while in the house that they were joined by two men whom DJ Fatxo identified as his driver and cousin.

Again, Mutano made an Uber request to take them home, but DJ Fatxo asked her to cancel the ride, saying he would instead drop them off.

So the three ladies left the apartment together with DJ Fatxo, leaving behind Jeff and the two men.

It is after dropping the three ladies that DJ Fatxo allegedly called Wairimu to pick up the beauty products he had ordered from her.

“He was alone when he came to collect the products. He didn’t leave the car, parked outside our gate, and I came downstairs and outside the gate to give him the products before he sped off,” Wairimu said.

In his testimony earlier in the year, Jeff’s father, Peter Ngugi, said his son was murdered and narratives of him having been consumed by suicidal thoughts to the extent of taking away his life are misleading.

Jeff, whose real name is Geoffrey Mwathi Ngugi, died on February 22, 2023, at Redwood apartment in Roysambu, Nairobi.

Jeff's father said DJ Fatxo had called his driver, Geoffrey Wanyeki, to come over while they were still at the bar to drive him home, claiming he was too drunk to be on the steering wheel.

"Wanyeki did not come alone. He came with Njuguna's (DJ Fatxo) cousin, Christopher Wang'ombe. They then continued drinking despite having said he was too drunk," Ngugi testified.

By the time they were leaving the bar for home, Wanyeki did not drive the car.

Instead, it was DJ Fatxo who drove his car home with Jeff and the three women.

Wanyeki and Wang'ombe used another means to get to the house.

Jeff's father Ngugi questioned why they were going to DJ Fatxo's house, yet the work of driving for which Wanyeki was called was no longer necessary.

In the house, DJ Fatxo asked Jeff to excuse himself and retire to his bed because he appeared extremely sleepy. 

"They (DJ Fatxo, Wanyeki and Wang'ombe) followed him to the bedroom. There was a slight commotion there, and it was at that time that Jeff was killed," Ngugi told the inquest.

He testified that when the DJ returned from the bedroom, he quickly asked the women to leave and offered to drive them home.

"For him (DJ Fatxo), that move was very key so that there would be no witnesses," Ngugi said.