Thika Millionaire Who Went Missing More Than Two Months Ago Resurfaces

Thika-based millionaire businessman Julius Gitau has resurfaced more than two months after he was reported missing.

Gatanga Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) head John Kanda told Daily Nation that the self-made tycoon reappeared on Sunday, ending fears that he was dead.

“We have spoken to him. He is alive. I always told you we were on top of this search and our leads were that it was immature to conclude he was dead. He is now heading to our offices for processing,” Kanda told the publication.

Gitau, a renowned trader in Thika town, disappeared on the morning of September 21st after he left his shop in one of his lorries saying he was going to a local gym.

It was reported that he did not go to the fitness center but he called his driver instructing him to pick the vehicle from Blue Post Hotel in Thika.

In the truck, the driver found the vehicle’s keys and Gitau’s mobile phone on the dashboard. There was also a suicide note addressed to his family.

The note read: “Kwa familia yangu, nimechoka na mashida ya maisha. Najitupa kwa mto” (to my family, I am tired of problems. I am jumping into a river).”

But police dismissed the note as a forgery and have been investigating the businessman’s mysterious disappearance.

“In our investigations regarding the missing, the moment you hit the second week without finding a body of the victim, the game changes to that of investigating a possibility of finding him or her alive than dead. This because it is easier to find a body than a lost person,” said Kanda.

Gitau’s reappearance comes three days after his mother threatened to pitch tent outside State House until police tell her the whereabouts of her son.

“I want to pack my bedding and move to State House gates to wait for the president and plead with him to issue an order to the Directorate of Criminal Investigations to get me my son,” the mother said at her Murang’a home, accusing police of doing little to find her son.

“We are now past two months since my son was reported missing. The DCI is treating this case in a very casual manner and all I am being told through the press is that the case is still under investigation. I know if it was a big man’s son who had gone missing we would have known his whereabouts within hours…DCI here knows they are searching for a son of poor aging and ailing single mother,” she added.

His businesses have remained shut since he went missing with his three wives fighting over who should manage them.

Gitau, a former hawker who used to earn Sh100 per day, is estimated to be worth Sh600 million, with Sh518 million in liabilities, according to detectives.