By Martin Masai
A cloud of mystery hangs over the death of a Machakos County Government employee whose body was recovered in Kyumbi barely a day after he disappeared, raising troubling questions about what happened during his final hours.
Alfonse Matee, popularly known among friends and colleagues as “Ali Karen” on Facebook, disappeared on Tuesday under circumstances that remain unclear.
On Wednesday, the body of an unidentified African adult male was recovered in the Kyumbi area along the Nairobi-Mombasa highway corridor and taken to Machakos Level Five Hospital Mortuary.
The remains would remain unnamed and unclaimed until Friday when colleagues and acquaintances identified the deceased as Matee, an Information Technology officer attached to the County Department of Finance within the Government of Machakos.
Those who viewed the body reported visible injuries, raising suspicions that he may have met a violent death.
By Thursday evening, investigators were yet to publicly disclose the circumstances surrounding his death, the cause of the injuries, or whether foul play was suspected.
What has emerged, however, is a portrait of a county employee whose influence within the county bureaucracy extended far beyond his official designation.
Although formally employed as an IT officer attached to the Department of Finance, many county employees regarded Matee as an unofficial accounting troubleshooter.
Colleagues described him as the “Mr Fix It” whenever officers encountered difficulties accounting for imprests or reconciling expenditure records.
“He was the person people would run to when they needed help making sense of financial documentation,” said one colleague who requested anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly.
Several sources told The Anchor that Matee had developed a reputation for assisting colleagues in locating supporting documentation and receipts required during financial reconciliations.
That role, while unofficial, potentially placed him in possession of extensive knowledge regarding expenditure patterns across various county departments, especially among top county officials.
Whether that knowledge has any connection to his death remains entirely speculative and investigators have not indicated any such link, yet such a circumstance would imperile an official.
Nevertheless, the circumstances have fuelled intense discussion within county circles.
Sources familiar with Matee’s working environment described a curious contradiction. Despite being considered highly resourceful and frequently sought out by colleagues and bosses, he operated without a designated office and was not assigned a permanent workstation.
Instead, he was known for working from what colleagues described as a “mobile office” — moving between departments and assisting staff wherever needed.
Questions are also emerging about Matee’s final movements.
Multiple sources told The Anchor that he had spent part of Tuesday in the company of colleagues before he vanished.
Unverified accounts suggest investigators are examining whether he may have been drugged before falling into the hands of his attackers.
The Anchor has not independently confirmed those claims including
reports circulating within county circles that several of Matee’s colleagues have already recorded statements with investigators regarding what they know about his disappearance and death.
Detectives have not publicly commented on those reports.
Another detail attracting attention is activity on Matee’s WhatsApp account.
Individuals who monitored the account after his disappearance observed that the platform indicated he remained online until approximately 1.15 p.m. on Tuesday.
Whether the activity originated from Matee himself, another person using his phone, or reflected automated application activity remains unknown.
Investigators are expected to examine mobile phone records, location data, communications history and CCTV footage that may help reconstruct his final movements.
Family, friends and colleagues are left grappling with a growing list of unanswered questions.
How did a county employee disappear on Tuesday and end up dead in Kyumbi the following day?
What explains the injuries observed on his body?
Who was with him during his final hours?
And was his death a random criminal act, or was he targeted for reasons yet to be uncovered?
Detectives are piecing together the events leading to Matee’s death, even as the case is rapidly evolving from a missing-person report into a matter of significant public interest, particularly given the deceased’s proximity to financial processes within one of Kenya’s largest county governments.
Until investigators provide answers, the mystery surrounding the death of Alfonce Matee will certainly deepen.
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