News 
Friday, January 31, 2003 

A Kenyan tour guide at the centre of a bizarre love triangle died in Germany – and was hurriedly buried without his family's knowledge.

Festus Kisangi Musili, aged 29, died in mysterious circumstances 10 months after arriving in Berlin at the invitation of Dieter Endert, a policeman married to a Kenyan woman who had been Musili's friend in Malindi.

Coast Express investigations reveal that Musili may have become the victim of a love affair gone sour. 

The German authorities released a report indicating that Kisangi committed suicide as a result of what they call "love grief". 

According to the post-mortem examination, Kisangi hanged himself with a "four-string white plastic rope with a simple knot". 

He is said to have left a suicide note in which, after mentioning his friend Jacqueline Endert as "knowing everything", he begged: "My body must be taken home, which is Kenya."

But the manner in which he was buried, without the knowledge of his family or the Kenyan Embassy in Berlin, has raised many questions about the suicide theory. 

Kisangi is said to have died on April 22 last year but it was not until May 8 that his family learnt of his death, according to his brother James. 

The Kenyan and German governments corresponded about Musili's death and rapid burial but the letters did not explain convincingly why he would take his own life. 

The Germans appear to have ignored a request from the Kenyan embassy in Berlin to delay the burial pending adequate investigations and the involvement of the deceased's next of kin, who were all in Kenya. 

In a letter dated May 29, the embassy wrote to the ministry of foreign affairs in Nairobi saying it had asked police headquarters in Berlin to stop the burial in Germany until they received communication from his brother. 

Instead, a Malindi resident identified as Anthony Kimeu Kivati – who reportedly broke the news of Musili's death to his family in Kitui – is claimed to have authorised the Germans to go ahead and bury him. 

But though Mr Kivati admitted knowing Musili, he vehemently denied having anything to do with the burial. "How can I authorise somebody's burial when we are not even related?" he asked. 

During the course of the conversation, he asked whether Coast Express could delay publication of the story, saying mysteriously: I was misled in some way, I was put into a problem which I did not anticipate.

Correspondence in possession of Coast Express indicates that the Kenyan embassy, through Ms L.C. Sambu, demanded certified copies of statements recorded by German police from Mr and Mrs Endert, who are said to have sent Musili money to process a passport application and travel to Germany. 

On July 11, 2002, the embassy official wrote to a district court in Berlin pointing out that he had been buried on May 29 "without authority from his relatives and without the knowledge of the embassy". 

She also wanted a copy of the burial permit and the name of the organisation or person who prepared the body as well as the police statement from Josephat Nzai, who had been living with Musili at the time of his death.

Musili's body was found dangling from the roof of Mr Nzai's house in Berlin. A gold necklace, mobile phone, personal papers and some money was found on the body alongside the suicide note. 

He had been living in the German city illegally from November 20, 2001.

According to Kenyan sources in Germany who spoke with Mrs Endert, she was not aware that Musili was still living in Berlin. After his three-month visit, they said, he reportedly left to catch his plane in Munich and that was the last the Enderts saw of him.

Nevertheless, she soon started hearing reports that he had been sighted in Munich, Nairobi and Malindi – which she did not consider extraordinary since he used to work for a tour guide firm that had offices in Malindi and Munich. 

Mrs Endert believes Musili concealed his presence in Berlin from the family because her husband would have arrested him for being in Germany illegally.

In a letter to the Kenyan Embassy two days after Musili's death, a senior Berlin police officer said: "There are no indications of any foreign involvement in his death. Considering the farewell letter which was found, love's grief could be the cause of his death."

Musili's last message speaks of a heart-rending desperation. "May the Lord Our Mighty Father who is in heaven forgive me for all this . . . I cannot survive (sic) any more."

The Musili saga raises questions about the fate of many young Kenyans, mainly from Mombasa and Malindi, who travel to Europe in pursuit of a better life. 

Comments\Views about this article