'I was shocked!' Ex-soldier discovers he was declared dead amid family dispute

A troubled ex-military man is seeking answers after he shockingly discovers that his own death certificate had been produced when he was still alive.

David Muigei, a retired military officer, stumbled on his death certificate more than a decade ago while investigating a matter where a car he claims to be his was transferred to a different owner without his knowledge.

The death certificate, which The Standard saw, indicates that the ex-soldier died of haemorrhagic pancreatitis in an Eldoret-based hospital on October 12, 2023, aged 65.

But it was in 2024 that he discovered that he was dead on paper.

Also unknown to him was that he was no longer the owner of the car he had hoped to ride during his retirement.

“I was shown a copy of my death certificate, and I was shocked that I died more than two years ago. As you see me, papers show that I died in October 2023,” said Muigei in an interview in late April.

Amidst the discovery, Muigei claims, is a battle to save multi-million shillings properties he acquired through loans and savings when he served in the military.

He believes that the death certificate might have been used to transfer a Toyota Harrier registration number KDL233Y, a motor vehicle he (Muigei) claims that he bought and was registered in his name.

“I wrote three letters to the state authority demanding to know how the ownership of my car changed without my knowledge, but they have yet to respond,” said Muigei.

St Luke’s Hospital, where the veteran is alleged to have died, denied having records of his admission and death at the facility.

“Further, we wish to confirm that no documents relating to your death were issued by our hospital. Any documents in your possession or a third-party purporting to have emanated from our hospital are forgeries and should be treated as such,” the hospital said in a letter signed by an acting administrator, Kipkurui Korir. It is dated April 9.

The last letter, the troubled retired soldier claims, was written in April.

His troubles started around the same time his death certificate was produced.

It started as a battle over property, pitting him and his wife. This family dispute resulted in Muigei suspecting that caution had been placed in his properties, including an eight-acre plot of land in Ziwa, Uasin Gishu County and others in Nandi County.

“It started with pressure from certain individuals (names withheld) for me to transfer land documents to one of my confidants (undisclosed), and I refused,” says Muigei.

He claims that trouble started after people known to the ex-soldier stormed his home and demanded to take his car, but he turned them away around October 2023.

The man who came for his vehicle, Muigei recalls, persisted after he refused to surrender the car, until January 7, 2024, when he turned up with a group of youths and forcefully took it away alongside its logbook.

He says he reported the loss of his motor vehicle at the Eldoret Police Station and was promised that investigations would be undertaken. Still, months later, he was arrested in April for illegal possession of the same car that he had lost.

“I denied the charges on April 5, 2024, and I began investigating how the car was transferred, yet the modern systems of transfer are foolproof,” says Muigei.

He goes on to say: “That is when someone at the state agency informed me that my own death certificate was used to undertake the transfer.”

Even before the mystery of his death certificate was uncovered, Muigei discovered that the ownership of his Toyota Harrier had been transferred without his knowledge.

In Court, Muigei is battling matters, including cases of allegedly assaulting his wife, and being denied access to his home in Ziwa after his wife complained that he was a threat to her and her children.

But Muigei told the court that the cases were a scheme to intimidate him in an alleged plot to transfer his property. He also has a pending divorce case.

He would later fight off claims that he was a threat to his estranged wife, who separated from him in 2022 and his children, who are living in Australia.

Efforts to get a comment from Muigei’s estranged wife, Esther Serem, on whether she was aware of the fake death certificate were futile after she declined to pick up calls and reply to messages.

The Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) has, for more than two years, been investigating the alleged transfer of the vehicle that Muigei claims to be his.

In a letter to the National Transport and Safety Authority dated February 20, 2024, the DCI wrote: “This office is investigating a case of theft of a motor vehicle.

For us to be able to finalise our investigations, kindly assist us with the following: the previous and the current owner of the motor vehicle, the documents that were used to transfer the registration number from the previous owner to the current owner and any other relevant document.”

Muigei was in the process of writing to the Judicial Service Commission to complain about delays and allegations of misconduct in his cases, but his bond was cancelled on May 13, and he was incarcerated pending the determination of the assault case.

An affidavit sworn by a police officer, Dominic Limo, states that Muigei had allegedly followed his estranged wife to a beauty salon in Eldoret city. The statement was used to cancel the bond.