Tecra Muigai who is currently in jail has finally opened up for the first time about what exactly happened on the fateful day that saw the love of his life, Tecra Muigai fell off the stairs and later on died following complications from that fall.
Omar Lali who is 51 years old who has lived in Lamu’s Shela village for years has finally opened up about his side of the story.
The father of five daughters, Omar Lali was born to a family of fishermen who has seen him live comfortably selling seafood and making a buck as a tour boat operator.
Lali finally opened up for the first time speaking about his side of the story on how his girlfriend, Tecra Muigai who is the daughter of Keroche Breweries billionaires, Joseph and Tabith Karanja came to die.
Omar Lali spoke exclusively with The Standard about his 10-month-long pure love story with Tecra Muigai that shocked his world after May 2, 2020, after learning about the sad, sudden death of Tecra Muigai.
Omar Lali on how he met Tecra Muigai
Lali was celebrating the visit of one of his five daughters who lived in the UK at the poolside of Peponi Restaurant on Thursday afternoon on June 6th, 2019.
“We were just having a good time and catching up, I hadn’t seen my daughter for long so on that day, we had a family reunion,” Omar told The Standard.
On the other side of the swimming pool, Tecra was sitting down with a friend.
By then, Tecra was a frequent visitor in Shela and was on a first-name basis with most of the staff of the hotels she preferred to stay in when she was in Shela, Lamu.
Tecra Muigai’s boyfriend Omar Lali arrested over her sudden, untimely death
These relationships she had with the locals and hotel staff played a key role in connecting her with Omar Lali later on that night.
When The Standard crew was exclusively interviewing him, he was just coming from his first birth after four days without taking any.
Omar Lali on events that took place on the fateful April 23
Omar Lali revealed that Tecra loved yoga which he believed that she found herself through the ancient physical, mental, and spiritual practice.
When he speaks, he is taken back to the night of April 23 in bits and pieces. There are segments of that night he would want to forget and treat like a dream.
“We woke up late that day,” he says. “We ate our lunch at around 2 pm then we each went on to do different things.”
Somehow though, Shela provided an escape. Here, she just got a chance to be herself. Find herself.
“She let down all the walls that you’d expect someone like her to have around her,” a worker at one of the hotels she frequented while in Shela told The Standard. “It was like here she truly lived.”
Omar went to spend time with his youngest daughter who flew in from the UK to spend time with her father while Tecra went in for an hour-long Yoga session when they parted ways after a light lunch, they then agreed to meet later on in the evening.
At around 6 pm, they reconvened at Jaha House, where the couple had been staying for weeks. But it wasn’t going to be a normal day. There was something festive about her on that day.
“I ordered five liters of madafu and she ordered three bottles of vodka. We had liters of passion juice as well,” Omar says. The alcohol was so much for the couple that waiting staff thought they were expecting guests.
“This girl…this girl was special. I know I will never find anyone like her again.”
It wasn’t strange to see the couple walking hand in hand in the narrow corridors of Shela together. Or taking sunset boat rides, riding the gentle waves that come with low tide.
In fact, they had become welcome visitors in some of the island’s top spots like Peponi, where they met, the Majlis Resort, Diamond Resort or Manda Bay Resort where they were on the first-name basis even with the owners. Omar, because that was home for him and Tecra because she was a people’s person.
At around 1 am, Omar retired to bed.
“I was on antibiotics so I didn’t drink as much,” Omar says. “I stretched out on a nearby couch and dozed off.”
Tecra Muigai falling down the stairs
During the night in Shela, it is usually calm, quiet, and peaceful, and most often than not, there’s nothing that usually cuts throughout the night save for the call for prayers in the beautiful, little village known for its beauty and beautiful cottages.
Omar narrated how he was woken up from his deep with a loud thud.
“I heard a loud thud and then a single scream,” he says. “I looked towards where Tecra was sleeping and she wasn’t there. I looked towards the staircase and saw her at the bottom of the stairs.”
At that point, she wasn’t moving. But she was breathing.
“I tried to do basic first aid by fanning her and trying to resuscitate her,” Omar says.
After a few minutes, she came to.
“She told me that she was in pain. That her head and limbs hurt,” says Omar.
Omar, later on, phoned his brother, and together, they took Tecra to Shela Dispensary and according to the records gathered by The Standard reporter/s, Tecra was put on a drip and given an injection.
A doctor who handled them told The Standard that the two were inebriated and after examination, it was recommended that a CT scan would be the best way to proceed. But there was an issue. Shela Dispensary could not run this and other tests that the doctor on duty had recommended. Tecra needed to be transferred.
Omar and his brother-in-law took Tecra to the King Fahd County Referral Hospital which is a five-minutes journey from Shela.
Tecra was admitted upon arrival.
At this time, Omar and the doctors who received her say she was still talking to them. Telling them how she was feeling. The bleeding from her ears and nose had stopped.
It was at this time that Omar Lali phoned Tecra’s sister updating her on what was going on. Tecra’s sister mentioned that they had been in communication, chatting around 2:30 am.
Medical Emergency Evacuation
Omar says he was convinced that the hospital wasn’t up for the task confessing that they needed to change hospitals after a CT scan results came in after almost 10 hours after they checked her into the hospital at around 4 pm.
Omar Lali called Tecra’s mother, Mrs. Tabitha Karanja.
At around 10:30 pm that night, an Amref Air Rescue Ambulance landed at Magogoni on the Manda Bay Airbase for what was described to air traffic control as a medical emergency evacuation. In an hour’s time, Tecra had landed in Nairobi and transferred to Nairobi Hospital for better care. Omar was by her side through the journey.
Tecra Muigai with her lover Omar Lali during one of their dates. Photo credit: Facebook
At the hospital, more scans were ordered.
“One of the doctors said she was improving,” Omar says. Over the next two days, he was hosted at the Karanja family home and visited Tecra on more than one occasion to check up on her.
On the third day, he was moved to a hotel and on the fourth, he was put in a car and driven to Lamu by policemen.
“Once I got to Lamu they told me she had died,” he says.
Tecra’s plans of settling down with Omar Lali
Just to reiterate how serious they were together, Omar Lali revealed that they were planning on buying a property in Naivasha and that they have only been apart from each other for six days throughout their 10-month-long dating.
The days that they were apart from each other, she had to attend different meetings related to the running of her family business.
The couple had traveled to Tanzania for a birthday party of Tecra’s brother, they also went to Ethiopia and a stayed in Zanzibar for a couple of hours before heading back to Shela.
“When we came back, she said she wanted us to settle down and I helped her look for a house in Naivasha,” Omar says. “Lakini Mwenyezi Mungu amemchukua… ni haki yake siwezi kumlaumu Maulana.”
Omar Lali getting locked up
Omar Lali was taken to Lamu Police station after the news of Tecra’s death was broken to him on Saturday. So far there haven’t been any formal charges leveled against him.
However on Monday when he was presented to Court, officers from the Directorate of Criminal Intelligence(DCI) asked for an additional 21 days to further investigate the matter.
Omar Lali who shared that he doesn’t care what people are saying about them(himself and Tecra Muigai) said that officers of the law have been reaching out to his family members asking them to tell Omar to confess to punching Tecra.
“They told my brother to tell me to confess to punching her…and that once I accept this as a formality they will help me get out of jail,” Omar says. “Mimi nimpige kwa kazi gani, nimuue kwa kazi gani? Watu hawawezi kukubali ajali za mwenyezi mungu (Why would I punch her or kill her? Why won’t people accept God’s will?). I am suffering without her.”
“Mwenyezi mungu anaijua roho yangu,” Omar Lali who believes that they were carrying each other in their hearts says. “Anajua tulivyoishi. Mengine yote ni urongo mtupu.”
“This girl…this girl was special. I know I will never find anyone like her again.”
Tecra’s family wants the government to release him since there are no charges against him and he has offered all possible support to the investigations. They insist the untimely death of Tecra was a tragic accident.
This story was first exclusively reported by SDE
