Muriuki died in a Nairobi hospital, according to Nelson Otuoma, the National Coordinator of the National Empowerment Network of People Living with HIV and AIDS in Kenya (NEPHAK).
He had been discharged from the Kenyatta National Hospital about a week ago, according to Otuoma, after a month-long stay, and would succumb at around 8 p.m. Monday at a city hospital where he had been rushed.
At a time when HIV/AIDS patients were shunned and ostracized, Muriuki is lauded for being the first Kenyan to go public about their health status.
Muriuki believed he only had a few months to live when he made the announcement in 1987--or so doctors told him at the time.
The disease was primarily associated with gay men and extreme hedonism, and information about the new scourge ravaging the world was scarce.
Multiple doctors confirmed his HIV status, and as Muriuki would later reveal in an interview with the Standard, he was one of the first people to contract the'slim disease' as it was known at the time.
"I was a normal young man with a normal lifestyle. I had a promising career as an accountant at Nairobi City Council. I had been losing weight and having other standard symptoms associated with HIV but I assumed it was malaria," Muriuki was quoted as saying.
"The doctor ran various tests including one for HIV. On getting the results, the doctor stood and started pacing to the window.”
In the 1980s, living with HIV was a nightmare. Muriuki had to deal with adversity on a daily basis, starting with his office, where he was relegated to a lower position and his seat removed to his in-laws, who wanted his wife to jump ship.
Eventually, feeling unwelcome, he quit his job and relocated to Nyeri, to await his end of days.
Muriuki, on the other hand, continued to live a healthy lifestyle and eventually founded the 'Know Aids Society,' a HIV/AIDS non-profit organization.
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