The 17 years old girl who is recuperating in a hospital in Kenol, Murang’a County. On Sunday, April 14, a 17-year-old girl left her mom’s rental home in Kenol....CONTINUE READING
In the company of another girl, Wairimu (not her real name), they attended a birthday party in a club in Kenol town.
At the party, a man, acquainted with her, suggested they leave the club and go to another more exciting one, and they left in a group.
By then, dusk was approaching. But it is at this other club that a man insisted that they go to Gikono, several kilometres away.
Wairimu’s grandparents are in Gikono. Even then, she declined the proposal as her parents were waiting for her in Kenol.
And that’s the last memory she has. What followed is a blur for her mother Wangari (not her real name) who was surprised that her daughter did not return home.
“That same night around 7 pm, I received a phone call informing me that my daughter was with a friend of hers and that she was in good hands,” she said.
At 6 am on Monday, Wangari was visited by her daughter’s friend with whom she had spent Sunday, saying she had received information that Wairimu had been involved in an accident.
The friend did not know where the accident had occurred and neither did she have more information.
“She gave me the phone number of a man that she said had given her the information but when I called, the man also said he had been informed by someone else and did not have more information.”
Wangari thought the youngsters were playing a sick game on her but the lady friend came back to her house a few hours later saying she needed to talk to the mother of another friend who was there when the accident happened.
But when Wangari called the phone number the friend had given her, a woman received the call and said she was not the one they were looking for.
Shortly after, the friend’s sister visited Wangari and this time, informed her that Wairimu had been taken to a private hospital in Thika in a serious condition and that doctors had refused to attend to her until she got there.
“I approached my neighbour to accompany me and that’s when we found her in a very bad condition,” she said.
Wairimu had been raped and doused in acid, she was almost unrecognizable. One side of her face had been badly affected and the acid had burnt a hole in her chest.
She had injuries that appeared like stab wounds on both sides of her ribs. It also seemed like she had been dumped from a moving vehicle and had scratch injuries.
Wairimu had been found at Kabati near a fly-over along the busy Thika Kenol highway by police officers.
When she saw her daughter, Wangari said the shock was so profound that she almost fell. The hospital did first aid on her but declined to admit her as Wangari could not raise the Sh100,000 deposit demanded.
Wangari took her daughter to another facility in Thika that also refused to treat her without a deposit and Wairimu stayed there untreated for two days until a well-wisher helped transfer her to another facility in Kenol.
Here, Wairimu was immediately tended to and her recovery journey started. “Were it not for these doctors, we would not have made it this far,” Wangari said, fighting tears.
Wairimu’s father said when Wangari could speak, she gave details of her experience, incriminating her friend with whom she had spent Sunday with.
In anger, the father went in search of the friend and found her in a rental room in Kenol that she was sharing with a man.
He demanded answers and with the help of on-lookers, they got hold of her and took her to Kabati police station where she was interrogated.
“She admitted that she was there when the incident happened. She also said the person who ferried them from Kenol in a car was somebody she barely knew and only gave his number after a long while”.
Eventually, two men, including one who was found with Wairimu’s phone, were also arrested. The three were however later released, leaving the family wondering if it would get any justice.
“The injuries she has sustained indicate that the people who hurt her thought they had killed her when they dumped her,” he said.
The family is now apprehensive that with an unknown motive, the culprits could target the girl in the hospital and harm her more.
Kandara sub-county police commander Elena Wanjiku said the matter is still under investigation…<<CONTINUE READING>>
