Fresh details have emerged on the death of former Tharaka Nithi gubernatorial aspirant Felix Gitari who was found on Tuesday morning, July 18, with a gunshot wound that pierced through his head.
The brother of the deceased has recounted that the politician's phone went off minutes after leaving home to attend to some personal and business matters in Embu County which he did not disclose to the family.
Before getting a report from the police, the family tried frantically to reach him on the phone but was unreachable. They had earlier contacted the police to report that the former aspirant was missing.
Detectives attached to Ishiara Police Station have launched an investigation to find out the business which the politician was attending to before he died.
The deceased was positively identified by the family after police contacted the family over a body found in a car parked near Kanyuambora market the morning after Gitari left home.
Mbeere North sub-county police commander Eric Yego told the press that the police were notified after residents of Kanyuambora noticed a car that had parked on the side of the road for hours.
Gitari's family found most of his personal effects intact, while the body was in the driver's seat with a gun loaded with eight rounds of bullets close to his chest.
The police said the bullet entered through the right ear and exited through his left eye.
Yego reported the incident happened during the wee hours of Tuesday morning - suspecting that could be related to the activities he was to conduct in Embu.
Gitari vied for Tharaka Nithi County's gubernatorial seat on the Chama cha Kazi party on August 2022.
He, however, lost to second-term governor Muthomi Njuki of United Democratic Alliance (UDA) who won with 97,151 votes.
Gitari, who came a distant fifth with 1,461 votes, was a businessman in the region.
