DEATH ANNOUNCEMENT
SAMUEL KIMANI GATHOGO
“Chairman Sam”
9 April 1957 – 30 October 2026
Sacco chairman who kept Thika Road's matatus honest and his church choir in tune
It is with humble acceptance of God's will that we announce the promotion to glory of SAMUEL KIMANI GATHOGO, founding chairman of Kimbo Thika Road Sacco, on 30th October 2026 at Thika Level 5 Hospital. Husband to Ruth Wambui; father to Peter, Mary, Daniel and Faith; father-in-law to Esther and Joseph; Guka to nine grandchildren. Family and friends meet daily at Ndarugu, Gatundu, at 5.00 pm. Cortege leaves Lee Funeral Home on Friday 20th November at 7.00 am for a funeral service at PCEA Ndarugu Parish, followed by interment at the family farm. M-Pesa Paybill 891204, Account GATHOGO. Rest in peace, Chairman.
Samuel Kimani Gathogo was born on the red-soil ridges of Gatundu in April 1957, the third of seven children of a coffee picker and a mother who sold arrowroots by the roadside. He walked six kilometres to Ndarugu Primary School each morning, often carrying his shoes to save them for the classroom, and he never forgot that a good road is a gift.
At nineteen he became a matatu turnboy on the Thika to Nairobi route, hanging from the door and calling fares in a voice that carried over any engine. By thirty he owned a fourteen-seater, and in his forties he became founding chairman of Kimbo Thika Road Sacco, which grew from eleven vehicles to more than two hundred. Drivers remember his two rules: pay your crew on Friday, and never overload on a wet road. When the new traffic rules arrived in 2003 he went from stage to stage, vehicle by vehicle, so that no member lost a licence for want of a seatbelt.
Mzee Sam, as the younger crews called him, sang bass in the PCEA Ndarugu choir for thirty-one years and was never late for Wednesday practice. At home he grew Napier grass and kept four Friesian cows, and no visitor left without a bunch of bananas or a litre of milk. Arsenal on Saturday afternoons was sacred, and he forgave the team every defeat.
He preferred settling disputes under a tree to settling them in court, and he quietly paid school fees for nineteen children whose parents drove under his badge. He died peacefully at Thika Level 5 Hospital on 30 October 2026 after a short illness, with his family around him.
He leaves his wife of forty-one years, Ruth Wambui, four children, and nine grandchildren who called him Guka Gari, Grandpa Car.
“A good sacco is a family with number plates.”