On July 26, 2020, Kenya awoke to grim headlines: “Son of Former Nairobi Mayor Found Dead in Windsor Home.” Police reported that 25-year-old Kanyiri Wathika, heir to the estate of former Nairobi Mayor and Makadara MP Hon. Dick Wathika, had taken his own life, discovered hanging in his bedroom closet. His mother, Asenath Wacera Maina, was said to have found him.
But five years later, troubling questions continue to swirl. New claims suggest Kanyiri’s death may not have been a suicide at all — but a silencing linked to secrets about his father’s controversial ties to SportPesa, the billion-shilling betting empire.
The Rise — and Fall — of Dick Wathika
Dick Wathika’s story reads like a political fairy tale gone sour. From humble beginnings in Nairobi’s Eastlands, he became the city’s youngest councillor at 19 and later mayor. By the mid-2000s, he had forged business alliances that would change Kenya’s gaming industry forever — and, perhaps, cost him his life.
In Nairobi, he met two Bulgarian entrepreneurs, Guerassim Nikolov and Gene Grand, who were keen to set up a gambling business. Wathika opened doors for them, even controversially clearing Kenya Charity Sweepstake booths to make way for their lottery kiosks. When they needed local capital, he introduced billionaire Paul Ndung’u, a Safaricom dealer with deep pockets.
SportPesa was born in 2014, with Wathika as founding chairman. Soon, another Eastlands native, Ronald Karauri — a Kenya Airways pilot turned poker enthusiast — joined the fold and quickly rose to become CEO. The betting firm rode Kenya’s football craze to explosive success.
But inside the boardroom, things were less glamorous. Insiders say the Bulgarians and Karauri began sidelining Wathika, even as SportPesa drew scrutiny over tax evasion and money laundering allegations. By late 2015, Wathika was a distressed man. His blood pressure spiked whenever SportPesa was mentioned.
On December 14, 2015, after a tense meeting with the Bulgarians at Finix Casino, he collapsed twice. Hours later, he was dead from cardiac arrest. His phone disappeared that night, and questions arose: why was he driven through traffic to Karen Hospital, 12 kilometres away, instead of the nearby Nairobi Hospital?
The Son Who Questioned Too Much
Kanyiri never fully accepted the official story of his father’s death. Friends recall him suggesting that the pressures and betrayals in SportPesa — and his mother’s closeness to Ndung’u — were part of a bigger scheme. He worried openly about the management of his father’s estate and confided suspicions that the family had been pushed aside as others consolidated power and wealth.
According to those close to him, he directly confronted his mother about her relationship with Ndung’u. From then on, their bond deteriorated. He reached out to some of his father’s former allies for support and pressed for answers about the estate succession. His sister, who shared his concerns, eventually left the country, citing mistreatment at home.
Then, in July 2020, he was found dead in his room.
A Billionaire Under Fire
Paul Ndung’u, once feted as a SportPesa kingpin, has faced wave after wave of scandal. His companies were mentioned in the Sh5 billion Ministry of Health procurement scandal of 2016 and the KEMSA “COVID-19 Millionaires” saga of 2020. By 2023, Equity Bank was pursuing him over a Sh664.8 million loan, forcing auctioneers to list some of his properties.
Despite the financial pressure, Ndung’u has remained close to Ms. Wacera. The two have been spotted together in Nairobi and even abroad, leading critics to question whether the late mayor’s estate has been used to cushion his troubled empire.
Suicide or Silencing?
At the centre of the storm is one haunting puzzle: could a young man over five feet tall realistically hang himself from a closet rod with only a tie? Or was the scene staged?
A private citizen claims to have compiled fresh evidence and intends to petition the Directorate of Criminal Investigations to reopen the case. The evidence reportedly questions both the physical feasibility of the suicide and the unresolved disputes over the late mayor’s estate.
Gambling’s Shadow
Today, the Wathika family remains fractured — a father who died suddenly after being edged out of the betting empire he helped build, and a son who died after daring to probe too deeply.
Officially, both deaths remain what they were first called: one a cardiac arrest, the other a suicide. But the context — Bulgarians Guerassim Nikolov and Gene Grand, SportPesa CEO Ronald Karauri, billionaire Paul Ndung’u, and the empire they built with Wathika — continues to cast a long shadow.
As calls grow louder for the cold cases to be reopened, one question lingers in the public mind: were the deaths of Dick and Kanyiri Wathika mere tragedies of fate — or the dark consequence of a billion-shilling gamble gone wrong?
There's no story that cannot be told. We cover the stories that others don't want to be told, we bring you all the news you need. If you have tips, exposes or any story you need to be told bluntly and all queries write to us [email protected] also find us on Telegram
