Bishop Paul Ngarama: Why I forgive Joseph ‘Jowie’ Irungu for killing my daughter Monica Kimani
Bishop Paul Ngarama with his daughter, Monica Kimani, in Juba, South Sudan.
By Omulo Okoth
What you need to know:
- ‘I am asking him why he killed my daughter... Why? Is he ready to face me and ask for forgiveness?’
- 'We have lived in denial about Monica’s death, sometimes we tend to believe that she is probably travelling and will return home.'
In an exclusive interview with The Weekly Review in Seattle, Washington, US, Bishop Ngarama says forgiveness will put an end to the trauma that his family has gone through since 2018 when his first child and only daughter was killed in her apartment at Lamuria Gardens in the Kilimani area of Nairobi.
The pain of losing a child is unmistakeably etched on his face. But after the verdict was reached by the High Court on February 9, about the culprit, Bishop Paul Ngarama and his family are nearing a closure.
He is still fighting back tears of the tragic loss of a child he loved dearly, even as he says that he has forgiven the people who killed Monica Kimani on the night of September 19, 2018.
“The court has made its ruling, which is not different from what my family and I expected. But even as I forgive him (Joseph Irungu), I am still asking him why he did it,” Bishop Ngarama, Monica’s father, said this week in Washington State, United States.
“For my healing to go full circle, I must forgive him, which I have done. But, in all humility, I am asking him why he killed my daughter. What was the motive? Why? Why? Why? Is he ready to face me and ask for forgiveness?," Bishop Ngarama told this reporter in his tree-clustered residence in Federal Way, one of the several satellite cities that form the metropolis of Seattle in Washington State.
"This will put an end to the trauma that my family and I have gone through from 2018 when my first child and only daughter was slaughtered like a chicken,” said Bishop Ngarama.
“God demands of us to forgive unconditionally. But human nature and courtesy also behoves us to ask for forgiveness when we err. I don’t know if he can ask for forgiveness,” Bishop Ngarama, 58, of the Rebuilding Apostolic Mission Church, which is based in Juba and Thika, told this writer.
The American branch of the church has been registered, but is yet to start operating. Pain is palpable as he sips coffee on the portico of this heavily-forested neighbourhood.
When the High Court found Joseph Irungu, also known as Jowie, guilty of murdering Monica on February 9, the family of the slain woman, whose barbaric and senseless murder in her apartment in Lamuria Gardens in Kilimani, Nairobi, on the night of September 19, 2018, shocked Kenyans, breathed a sigh of relief.
Irungu’s ex-partner, a popular television presenter Jacque Maribe, who was the second accused, was acquitted. Justice Grace Nzioka found Irungu guilty of the murder, telling the court that he did not “give her even one minute to survive” and intended “instant death”.
The sentencing is set for March 8.
Eventually, a smile, however furtive, flickered on the face of Bishop Ngarama after he stoically followed the proceedings and lived with pain and trauma of burying his only daughter.
“The court’s verdict against the first accused is fair, in our view. Every evidence (of the murder) indicated that the first accused did it (murdered Monica). Even my family thought so, but matters of law are complicated and sensitive and we had to just wait for the court to scrupulously do its work and pronounce itself,” Bishop Ngarama said.
Bishop Paul Ngarama at a church in Seattle, Washington State, United States. Photos I POOL
He, however, seemed to have reservations about the acquittal of Maribe, but fell short of saying so directly, again taking cognisance of the esoteric nature of matters of law.
“The court said the prosecution did not present enough evidence to connect her (Maribe) with the murder. I do not want to comment further, but only wait for the appeal against her acquittal,” said Bishop Ngarama.
Following Monica’s murder, prosecution accused Maribe of trying to conceal evidence by burning Irungu’s clothes.
Justice Nzioka said the DPP can take action against Maribe if it chooses to. She said Maribe could be prosecuted for giving the police false information.
The Director of Public Prosecutions (ODPP) on February 13 filed a notice of appeal against the judgment.
“Take notice that the Republic, the intended Appellant herein, being dissatisfied with the decision of the High Court of Kenya at Nairobi (Hon. G. Nzioka), delivered in Nairobi on the 9th of February 2024, appeals to the Court of Appeal against the part of the judgment acquitting the second accused person,” read the notice filed by Senior Assistant Director of Public Prosecutions O.J. Omondi.
“We have lived in denial about Monica’s death, sometimes we tend to believe that she is probably travelling and will return home. But talking to people like you, friends and my colleagues has given me a healing. God has a way of testing peoples’ faith. I believe this is just one of those temptations," said Bishop Ngarama.
"With my forgiving of Irungu and whoever took part in the murder of my daughter, we will overcome (the pain),” said the Bishop, who is studying for a PhD in Mental Health and Psychology.
He graduated with a Master’s Degree in Biblical Counselling last year at Fulbright Theological Seminary in Lakewood, Washington.
Joseph Irungu alias Jowie at the Milimani Law Court on February 9, 2024, where he was convicted of murdering businesswoman Monica Kimani (inset) in 2018.
“Time is a healer and we are slowly accepting the finality of her death. The shock and suffering her death visited on our family was unbearable. My wife went into depression. However, she is recovering now and she can go to church,” he said.
“As a man of God, I am also praying for those who murdered Monica,” he said.
"The Bible," says the good old bishop, "tells us from the book of Genesis 41, how Joseph suffered in the hands of his brothers. When you read Verse 51, it says, ‘Joseph named his firstborn Manasseh and said, it is because God has made me to forget all my trouble and all my father’s household. I would like to be like Joseph."
He also quoted from the book of Nahum 1:9, which says “Whatever they have plotted against the Lord, he will bring to an end; trouble will not come a second time.”
The man of God has vowed to walk the same path that Job walked, that God gave him Monica and it is the same God who took her, even if the circumstances have left exponential hurt and pain to the family.
He endorses the moniker of go-getter that people familiar with Monica gave her.
“She was a real go-getter, she loved life, she loved people and was a very gregarious person,” he recalls.
Monica was running her Interior Design company in Juba besides working in the family company which Bishop Ngarama established in the young nation.
The company was offering fumigation and cleaning services to corporates in Juba, a new capital of independent South Sudan, which had a high demand for professional services such as janitors, fumigators, interior designers etc, services they did not have, after emerging from a protracted civil war.
Bishop Paul Ngarama, the father to the late Monica Kimani, during an interview at Fourteen Falls Lodge in Thika on October 3, 2018.
“We had good business in Juba and we earned good money. We got lucrative tenders from high-end corporates, government and United Nations agencies. This made some local people feel envious and I was threatened and accused of stealing dollars and engaging in money laundering.
"Social media was awash with speculation about the source of our money. But we were just working hard and rendering high-quality and professional services. This I credit to Monica. Her aggressive business nature earned us very good deals,” he said.
“But accusations about money laundering and stealing of dollars were all false. They were meant to intimidate and frustrate us, a result of envy and business rivalry. We did clean business. Talk of Monica carrying Sh8 million in cash was just rumours. I wasn’t shown that money, if indeed she had it,” he said.
“The company was registered legally and it was operating above board. The DCIO confirmed all the transactions were above board,” he reiterated.
Monica was born on December 12 1990, the first-born child of Paul Ngarama and Miriam Waruiru Kimani. They also have two sons, George and Solomon.
She grew up in the family home in Thika, where they ran a business inside the barracks, even though Ngarama was not a soldier. His father operated a barber and dry cleaning shop inside the barracks. He was also a cobbler, which Ngarama and his brothers inherited.
The family stayed near Makongeni before Ngarama bought a plot in Landless neighbourhood.
Bishop Paul Ngarama with his wife Miriam Waruiru Kimani, a young Monica Kimani and brother George Kimani.
Monica started her schooling at Thika BellHouse Academy and Stepping Stone Preparatory School where she finished Class 8.
She then went to Giaciri Secondary School in Gatundu. From Giaciri, she joined then Kenya Polytechnic, now Technical University where she did Diploma in International Relations.
After completing her diploma course, she went to Juba where her father, among the first people to establish a foothold in a newly independent nation with numerous business opportunities, was running his cleaning start-up.
The father lobbied for Monica to do her internship at the Kenyan Embassy, which she did for three months before graduation.
After graduating, she returned to Juba and was employed by the Kenyan Embassy in Juba, thanks to her excellent internship credentials.
It was during her tenure at the Kenyan Embassy that Monica made many contacts with people seeking business opportunities in Juba, which landed the father’s business many tenders.
Kenyan companies, financial institutions, insurance and other entrepreneurs, set up branches in Juba. With Monica exporting Kenyan business savvy and aggressiveness there, she was a reliable contact person to help on many fronts.
When she also started up an Interior Design, which she excelled in, daughter and father were doing very well, until rivalry and envy, as the father puts it, drove him out of Juba.
But all that came to a crashing end on the night of September 19, 2018, ending the life of a young vivacious woman tragically.
The father says Monica had a fiancé, a South Sudanese, who is working for a petroleum firm in Khartoum. He never met the fiancé, but only got to know about this through his sons.
Bishop Ngarama will be following the matter, if the State goes ahead with the appeal against Maribe’s acquittal, with satisfaction that the verdict was made and that he has forgiven the culprit.
