Jesse Mcjessiey, a close family friend to Ruth Matete and her late husband Beloved John Olakami Apewajoye, accused the gospel singer of killing her husband.
Mcjessiey accused Matete of having a hand in her late husband tragic death and even demanded authorities to take action.
He shared a video that highlighted the couple’s troubled marriage alleging that Matete was violent towards her husband and had reportedly stabbed him.
Matete was widowed just five months into her wedding. She lost her husband in a tragic accident on April 11th, 2020.
Ruth’s late husband died from injuries he sustained after a fire accident at their home, he was admitted to Kenyatta National Hospital for two weeks before he succumbed to fire-related injuries while undergoing treatment.
Matete was grilled multiple times by police over the tragic incident. She was summoned to the Directorate of Criminal Investigations headquarters where she spent hours responding to questions.
The 2012 Tusker Project Fame star was in the company of her father Abel Amunga, lawyer Robert Odanga and a female friend.
The lawyer told journalists that his client was asked to narrate the events that led to the gas cylinder explosion which had been reported as the cause of Apewajoye’s death.
The detectives also went to Matete Athi River home to collect more evidence to help them establish the events that preceded Apewajoye’s death.
Detectives from the homicide unit took over the probe into the April 11th incident from their colleagues from Athi River. The team reconstructed the scene of the incident as narrated by Matete.
Police and officials from the Energy and Petroleum Regulatory Authority (EPRA) visited the house where the incident happened after a gas cylinder exploded. The cylinder is among exhibits collected from the house for further analysis.
At the end of it all, Matete was never charged as postmortem report collaborated her story. Pathologists concluded Apewajoye had 60% burns that triggered a condition called sepsis hence multiple organ failure.
Fast forward to 2021, Matete reflected on how she was accused of killing her husband during an interview with Kalekye’s Health Moments.
“I used to hear things from my close friends, yes I knew it was happening but I decided not to go looking for the information myself. I did not want to read about it, I just let things be. It affected me but I dealt with it as soon as I could. My friends really shielded me. Deleting my accounts also helped as you could not find me,” said Ruth Matete.
Matete also recounted how she received the news of her husband’s death, saying she forgot about her baby for a moment.
“When I was told my husband was no more, I never thought about the baby. This is my husband, we had only been married for four months, the love of my life. The man I wanted to spend the rest of my life with. I did not think about the baby, the pregnancy. I did not even care if I lost it. At that moment I was mourning. I just allowed myself to grief, I had to accept it,” Ruth Matete said.
The 2012 Tusker Project Fame winner started caring about the baby on realizing her husband’s memories live in her.
“I know what death is. When they told me he is gone, I had to quickly adjust so as not to lose it. Even if I did not care about losing the pregnancy, at some point, I was like, he might have gone but because of the seed he has left in me, I have to hold myself together.”
On how she coped with the situation, Matete said she had several counsellors in her life since she had suffered from depression a few months before she got married.
“And so I had been in counseling and when this accident happened and he was gone, I used what I had learnt from the counselors. I also had friends who were counselors and they walked with me. They came through. I didn’t know I was depressed but I used to feel so low and I used to cry so much.”
Related: Ruth Matete’s Father Explains Why He Wants To Marry Woman Who’s Of Same Age With His Daughter
