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| The lost Jubilee blogger Bogonko Bosire. (Photo/Courtesy) |
Friends and family estimate that Bogonko Bosire disappeared between the 16th and the 24th of September, in 2013. These days, coincide with the Westgate Mall terrorist attack, which happened on the 21st of September 2013. My name is James Smart. And this is case number zero.
I'll be telling you the story of the seven year search of blogger Bogonko Bosire. With the help of my producer, Benjamin Njogu. In this podcast, we will investigate how Bogonko disappeared without a trace.
Who knew what and when. We will go inside the world of this journalist who had worked with Kenya's Jubilee campaigns. He lived, rough, and loud as he appeared. He was gentle and reflective. What happened to Bogonko Bosire in September, 2013? The story has twists and turns and new revelations.
Bogonko was running the Jackal News blog that covered, local news gossip and everything in a blog. It was expected he would have a blog post of the terror attack in which 71 Kenyans died, and 200 wounded. But there was no post on the first day, the second day nor the third day even as Kenyans and the world watched live for four days as the military engaged terrorists in Kenya's capital Nairobi.
KEEP READING
- Throwback: Seamless On-Air Chemistries to Have Reverberated Kenyan Radio Airwaves in Post-2000 Era
- Bogonko Bosire: The Mysterious Disappearance - Part 1
- -Bogonko Bosire: The Twisted Genius - Part 2
- Bogonko Bosire: Jackal News Blog Puzzle - Part 4
Followers of us his blog, The Jackal news immediately thought something was amiss. Suffice to say Bogonko had not been seen for nearly four days prior to the Westgate attack. Westgate becomes a permanent marker in Bogonko's disappearance story. He certainly would have had a take on this breaking news.
His friends, describe him as a no holds genius who went after stories with so much passion. But it was his writing skills, and also great courage. A longtime friend of Bogonko, Carol Kimutai, says his writing was unmistakable.
"I still stand by that. He was a genius, a brilliant guy and a good narrator and writer who used to call a spade a spade," Kimutai says.
In 2015, almost two years after Bogonko Bosire went missing, our producer, David Njogu interviewed several members of the Bosire's family, including his cousin, Dennis Kyago who lived with Bogonko Bosire at the time of his disappearance.
"Before he disappeared, he came back home and was completely drunk. The next day I woke him up at about 2pm," Kyago says.
When the Westgate terrorist attack happened, there was a lot of concern and tension in the country. Family members were searching for their relatives, mothers, children and friends. Everyone was glued to their screen, trying to find out if their loved one was actually at Westgate. This moment, also coincides with when the Bosire family actually come to terms with the fact that their loved one could also have been at Westgate.
At what point does the family accept that, Bogonko is indeed missing. And what is the first thing that they do?
"As we had to visit the timeline together because you don't expect someone to go missing, but from various sources we learnt that Bogonko was last seen on the 17th, as one of the cousin that was living with him confirms. And then I spoke with a brother who took us through the series of events to when they establish that Bosire is missing," says a relative.
The common theory is that Bosire disappeared when the Westgate happened. However, we have established that he was last seen and heard from before the Westgate terror attack. Nobody took him missing as a serious event because Bogonko was known to go for days. So people like his parents can be forgiven for thinking that he was missing in pursuit of a story.
His family cites, yet another example when he traveled to Europe for work without informing anyone. They only found out, months later.
"It wasn't like out of the ordinary the for Bogonko to disappear. Everyone would tell you that he would just go and show up, months later, like the parents have talked about it. What was different this time was that Bogonko known as one who chased stories and there wasn't the biggest story in happening in Kenya, the Westgate attack," says a relative.
She adds: "He wasn't posting anything. And so, everyone particularly, his friends were like what's happening what's going on? Where is Bogonko? And so we started messaging, Dennis Itumbi asking him, where is your friend? What Dennis did was give us ideas and suggestions that this might have happened by giving us a timeline of the Bogonko's final days, but there were no answers."
The timeline that the relative is talking about is the same one that Itumbi shared publicly on his Facebook wall after media personality, Jeff Koinange assured activist Boniface Mwangi that "Dennis Itumbi knows Bogonko's whereabouts".
This assertion made by Jeff, as a by the way, caused a lot of people to demand, concrete answers from Itumbi. This in turn led him to publicly, make a statement, in which he traced Bogonko's final days.
In summary, Itumbi revealed that Bogonko had gone to Mwea for the weekend to visit a friend, a girl whose name Itumbi withheld. He would then return to Nairobi on Monday. On Tuesday, he texted Itumbi in regards to his story.
On Wednesday, he was at Jingos and later at the courthouse. Thursday, he was at Jingos and sent messages to several WhatsApp groups complaining about ICC's warning to journalists against using names of witnesses. The same day he told a mutual friend that a High Court judge had called him to warn him about the ICC.
He also talked about a girl who wanted him to write a story about her affair. Itumbi in his statement said that Safaricom two records showed that Bogonko's phone was last used at Kimathi Avenue on 19th of September. And that's on Saturday the day of the Westgate attack.
Itumbi got reports that Bogonko was spotted at Sigona golf club and was shabbily dressed and drunk. Itumbi sent someone to verify and the report turned out negative that Bogonko who had an alternative phone, and that phone was last used in Muranga.
Itumbi also received information that there were unclaimed bodies at Naivasha mortuary. He sent journalists and family to take a look and it turned out that none of the bodies was Bogonko's.
"Bogonko Bosire: The Twisted Genius-Part 2" is up next. Click here to continue.
EDITOR'S NOTE: This article was transcribed & edited from the Nation's Afripod podcast.