Deadly confrontation with boda boda riders costs lorry driver his life
The driver of the lorry whose occupants were attacked by boda boda riders after a fight over a mobile phone on Saturday evening at Githurai, Kimbo estate in Kiambu county has died.
Mr Josephat Muriuki, who had offered two women a lift, succumbed to injuries on Wednesday at the Kenyatta National Hospital (KNH) where he was receiving treatment.
Another unidentified man is said to have died while the two women are nursing serious injuries and staring at bills running into hundreds of thousands of shillings after being injured in the melee off Thika Road.
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On Wednesday, police said that Mr Muriuki and a boda boda rider, who is on the run together with his fellow riders, had differed after the latter allegedly stole a phone belonging to the lorry driver.
The started how all big things start: Small.
Here a chronology of events that led to the fatalities:
- It all started on Saturday 13, 2018 evening when Mr Muriuki differed with a boda boda rider and accuses him of stealing a phone. He takes the rider’s motorcycle, loads it into the lorry and leaves.
- As they always do, the boda boda rider then mobilises his colleagues about the incident and a plan to retrieve the motorcycle is launched.
- As this goes on, two women, Anne Mukami and Minnie Waithera, who are hawkers, ask for a lift home after they are through with their work and Mr Muriuki offers to take them home. They are unaware of what he has at the back of his lorry.
- As soon as they join the road leading to Kimbo, they notice a swarm of boda boda riders chasing after them.
- Mr Muriuki then decides to drive to the Githurai, Kimbo Police Station but just a kilometer away, he hits a wall and the boda boda riders corner them.
- The riders at first stone the lorry and later beat up all its occupants before leaving with the motorbike.
- The occupants are then rushed to various hospitals in Kiambu and Nairobi counties.
- On Sunday things are calm until Nairobi News and NTV report about the incident.
- On Wednesday morning, police through Ruiru police commander James Ng’etich say that they have launched a manhunt for the boda boda rider.
- On Wednesday evening, reports indicate that Mr Muriuki the lorry’s driver has died while receiving treatment at KNH.
- The suspects are still at large.