A village in Muthithi Ward, Murang’a County, is yet to come to terms with how five people ended up dead on the same night, leaving their families worried about a “curse of the motorcycle”.
The accident at Kagurumo village on October 25 sparked so much emotion that local pastor Esther Mwangi suggested that residents observe 40 days of fasting to escape the curse.
She told the Nation that “what we are going through as a village is a curse of the motorcycle and unless we seriously observe our covenant with God and renew it by prayer and fasting, the curse will continue disturbing us into the future”.
That day’s unfortunate events started when Samuel Kibandi Chege, 25, went to the nearby Sabasaba town to meet a man who had promised to give him a motorcycle for public transport.
Mourners attend the funeral service for Moses Kamande, James Wanyoike and Samuel Kabandi in Kagurumo village in Murang’a County on November 5, 2020.
Photo credit: Joseph Kanyi | Nation Media Group
Jobless and a father of two young children, Mr Kibandi was in high spirits as he would now be able to provide for his family with more ease.
His hopes were not dashed as at around 9am, he returned home riding a motorcycle which he would use for the transport business, giving the owner Sh300 daily.
“To celebrate the breakthrough, he summoned his friends from the village to test the power of the machine. They were Moses Kamande Muturi (21), James Wanyoike Ngigi (25) and Duncan Muchiri (33). They boarded the motorcycle and set off, not knowing they would end up in a grisly accident past midnight.
The motorcycle was left a wreck,” says Reuben Kaguma, their friend who missed out on the trip owing to an intuitive fear.
Mr Kaguma says he was last to board the motorcycle but alighted at Kamucii shopping centre, a short distance away, “after an eerie fear gripped me”.
“I heeded the warning that a bad omen hang over the ride,” he said.
Mourners during the burials of Moses Kamande, James Wanyoike and Samuel Kabandi.
Photo credit: Joseph Kanyi
Villagers say the four youths engaged in a “culture of death" as they went on a drinking spree that took them to Kamucii, Gakuria Hungu, Heho, Kaharati, Sabasaba, Karugia, Kenol and Kabati.
“From 9am, they were seen in these towns' bars taking alcohol, and later riding at high speed. Muchiri had Sh10,000 and was financing the road party to celebrate Kibandi’s breakthrough,” Mr Kaguma said.
Mr Muchiri, being the oldest in the pack, had promised Mr Kibandi a high return venture in neighbouring Gatanga Sub-County, saying he would make a profit of Sh2,000 in one night.
Minus the Sh300 that the motorcycle owner expected from him, he would earn Sh1,700 daily.
But the friends soon forgot about Gatanga, threw caution to the wind and rode on into the dead of the night, during the curfew that seeks to slow the spread of Covid-19.
Murang’a South Traffic boss Solomon Njuguna said, “It was at around 3am when I received a call from a police patrol vehicle and was told a motorcycle had collided head-on with a truck at a place called Makenji, leaving five people dead. I rushed to the scene.”
Mr Njuguna said the four friends were on the wrong side of the dual carriage road and that they all died at the scene. He added that all of the five people killed in the accident were heavily intoxicated.
“Four people were identified as residents of Kagurumo village of Kigumo Sub-County. The fifth person is yet to be identified,” he said.
The sad news reached their families, who live in neighbouring homesteads, on October 28.
Mr Muchiri was buried on November 5 and the other three the following day, while the fifth victim is yet to be buried.
Mr Kaguma said, “This is a tragedy we want to forget quickly. The question we are asking ourselves is where the government was as these youths freely accessed alcohol both before and after drinking hours, and raced on public roads on an overloaded motorcycle."
