Court issues final ruling on DJ Brownskin's role in wife’s death

The Milimani Magistrate’s Court has acquitted popular disc jockey Michael Macharia Njiri, widely known as DJ Brownskin, of charges related to the death of his wife, Sharon Njeri, who died by suicide in 2022.

The court ruled that the prosecution had failed to establish a case strong enough to warrant his conviction.

In her ruling, Chief Magistrate Caroline Mugo held that the evidence presented did not sufficiently demonstrate that DJ Brownskin aided, encouraged or facilitated his wife’s death.

The court found that the prosecution had not met the required legal threshold to prove the charges beyond a reasonable doubt, leading to his acquittal.

The DJ had been facing three serious charges: aiding suicide, failing to prevent a felony, and destroying evidence.

However, the court concluded that the prosecution’s case was largely speculative and unsupported by concrete proof linking him directly to the commission of the alleged offences.

The tragic incident occurred in July 2022 at the couple’s residence in Kariobangi South, Nairobi. Sharon Njeri took her own life by ingesting poison, an event that later drew national outrage after a video recording of her final moments went viral in April.

The footage, reportedly recorded by DJ Brownskin himself, showed Njeri consuming poison, a development that intensified public scrutiny and led to his arrest and subsequent prosecution.

The case sparked heated debate on social media, with many questioning the DJ’s role and moral responsibility in the circumstances surrounding his wife’s death.

According to the charge sheet, DJ Brownskin was accused of counselling his wife to take her own life.

The prosecution alleged: “That on July 29, 2022, at Kariobangi South Buruburu Sub-county in Nairobi county, the DJ counselled his late wife Njeri to kill herself by taking poison.”

He was also charged with failing to prevent a felony, with prosecutors arguing that he did not take reasonable steps to stop his wife despite allegedly being aware of her intentions.

Additionally, the DJ faced accusations of destroying evidence by deleting videos documenting the incident from his phone.

Police told the court that the deletion of the videos was done deliberately and with full knowledge that the material could be required as crucial evidence in an ongoing investigation.

DJ Brownskin consistently denied all charges. When he appeared before Chief Magistrate Lucas Onyina at the Milimani Law Courts on Monday, June 12, he entered a plea of not guilty to all counts.