The drama surrounding the disappearance of a Thika millionaire has taken a new turn after he resurfaced on Sunday morning, not dead, but alive, police say. - @NationAfrica

Julius Gitau, alias Gitau wa Mali, a well-known wholesale trader in Thika town, went missing on September 21 after he asked his driver to pick his vehicle near Blue Post Hotel in Thika.

What appeared to be a suicide note was later retrieved from the dashboard of the vehicle and the trader has not been seen since then.

But Sunday, at 9.44am, Gatanga Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) boss John Kanda called the media with the news that Mr Gitau has resurfaced.

We have spoken to him. He is alive. I always told you we were on top of this search and our leads were that it was immature to conclude he was dead. He is now heading to our offices for processing - DCI Kanda

The trader has resurfaced three days after his ailing mother, Rosemary Wanjiru, 69, threatened to camp outside State House, Nairobi until police tell her the whereabouts of her son.

Mr Gitau was reported to have authored a suicide note on September 21 saying he had run out of hope in life owing to financial pressures in his businesses and was jumping into an undisclosed river to die.

DCI's Mr Kanda was to later dismiss the note as a forgery. He doubted the sincerity of Mr Gitau’s relatives regarding his disappearance since "they appeared normally jovial and unrattled".

Mr Gitau, a former hawker, is rated in Mt Kenya region as a self-made millionaire who had built his estate since 1992 when he moved to Thika town after completing primary school. As a hawker, he was earning Sh100 daily as profit.

Today, he is estimated to be worth Sh600M, with Sh518M in liabilities according to detectives.

When he landed into big capital and as money poured into his life, he married three wives — and after he was reported missing, three more emerged — bringing children associated with him to 11.

There were also contradictory statements surrounding his last moments in public.

While his first wife said he was last seen in Thika town and later set off to a gym, his workers insisted he never showed up in town that morning.

Owing to divisions among his polygamous family, his businesses have remained closed all through this search and a vicious war regarding the control of his eight vehicles and collection of rent from his commercial buildings ensued.

Missing Thika millionaire Julius Gitau Wanyoike resurfaces https://bit.ly/2IhiCf0