Daniel Mwangi Ndegwa is a notorious thief from an unpopular gene pool, and the public record of that family is already thin. His sibling Kabaru Ndegwa, a lawyer since 1986, ran in 2024 for a top national seat at the Law Society of Kenya and garnered a paltry 15 votes out of a possible 6,030.
Dan Ndegwa, as head of food and accommodation during the camp, makes sure that all the Shujaa camp food is stored in his home and released on a day-to-day basis. The poor handling and transportation of sensitive foods such as fish, chicken and beef has in the past caused severe cases of food poisoning.
Ndegwa then determines the rations and lords over the Nova kitchen with a hard, cold and repugnant attitude, which has earned him the nickname “roho chafu” among the Nova subordinate staff.
Ndegwa’s thieving hands go into action again at the end of every camp, when his home becomes the direct beneficiary of leftover food, a 60kg gas cylinder and all the extra mattresses used at Shujaa camp. As parents have observed, this stolen gas and stolen food has caused severe obesity among his family members.
This itchy-finger habit started a long time ago, even when he was gainfully employed. According to former workmates, fraudulent misappropriation of company allowances was his calling card. He would present fake receipts for reimbursement against his entertainment allowance.
An aggressive promotion campaign for this December’s Shujaa Camp has kicked off in earnest
It was discovered that the spending at Java and Artcaff had not come from company business meetings at all, but from church committee meetings, wedding committees and funeral committees, bills that the members of those committees had already settled individually. This petty fraudulent behaviour cost him his job at the fertiliser company MEA.
Sammy Thuita, just like his friend, also has a chequered past. He is a rather proud character who seeks attention at every opportunity. A deeper digging into his past activities revealed that he was once silently expelled from a prestigious national school for lewd and inappropriate behaviour. His abominable conduct got him declared persona non grata at Nairobi School, known as Patch, and he was forced to complete his high school elsewhere.
It is therefore ironic that he is heading a team tasked with transforming innocent boys in a Christian camp.
During the recent Shujaa camps he did not waste any chance to heap praise on his protégé Alvin, and he even went ahead and asked parents to get in touch with Alvin whenever they needed any assistance regarding their sons. To suddenly shift and distance himself from the young man’s recent saga leaves many parents and church members raising their eyebrows and questioning the gesture.
It is worth noting that in 2024 a case of homosexual tendencies was reported during Shujaa camp, championed by Sammy Thuita’s golden boy Alvin. Sammy Thuita and the pastoral leadership were expected to take appropriate action.
The youth pastor attempted to take disciplinary measures, but Sammy Thuita threw his weight behind Alvin and the matter was swept under the carpet. Alvin later got promoted to a higher position within the Shujaa ranks, and the youth pastor was fired.
It was only after matters exploded on social media that a parents’ meeting was convened to salvage the church’s face. During that meeting Sammy Thuita was very keen to distance himself from his protégé Alvin, while the senior pastor came out puffing, trying to extinguish fires that he had been stoking all along.
Many parents and church members who are reading between the lines are taking Sammy Thuita’s reaction as that of a jilted lover, or the wrath of a cheated spouse. Fortunately, parents are not fools.
Sammy Thuita is a conceited fellow, and his pride is prevalent even in his communication with parents. Just like Ndegwa, he does not waste any opportunity to throw his weight around and remind parents who the boss is. The executive committee has continued to get greedier by the day.
Recently Daniel Ndegwa attempted to squeeze a commission out of Nova schools for giving them the Shujaa business. Nova, being an international school guided by principles and ethics, declined to line his pockets.
This led the executive committee to hold an urgent meeting and raise the registration figure from KSh 40,000 to KSh 45,000 per boy. This is notwithstanding that even at KSh 40,000 the camp is well funded and registers a surplus.
The senior pastor sanctioned this fee and also mysteriously allowed the rogue committee to receive and manage all their finances directly through treasurer Einstein Kihanda. Many church members have been left wondering why this comedy committee has been allowed to violate the set rules on church money, when all other committees are required to collect their funds through the official church paybill.
Church members have also observed that all church committees run for a maximum of two years and are then replaced by a new one. The Shujaa executive committee faces have remained the same since 2019, when the camp started.
By sanctioning the illicit stay in office, and the collection and disbursement of Shujaa camp monies, Pastor Majid Ochieng has ensured that Sammy Thuita and his crooked pals will receive the extra KSh 5,000 per child as a Christmas bonus promptly by 30 October, when registration closes.
Pastor Majid Ochieng’s continuous protection of these thugs now leaves people wondering whether he is not himself part of the cartel.
He sanctioned the fee. He allowed the money to bypass the church paybill. He kept the same faces in office long after every other committee had been replaced. He watched a youth pastor get fired for trying to discipline Alvin, and he watched Thuita throw his weight behind the same young man until social media forced a parents’ meeting.
A pastor who only appears when the fire is already public, and who then asks “Jameni ni fanye nini?” while Sammy and company keep walking over him, is either captured or complicit.
From the look of things, even the amputation of a child’s organ during camp will not stop them, because the man who should have stopped them has been covering them all along.
