By Allan Olingo
John Njenga Kamau was to close school last Thursday but the following day, he was laid to rest after a lorry ran over him within the school compound.
After Njenga’s death, his colleagues at Lenana School protested. They demonstrated their anguish along Ngong Road, forcing the school to close early.
According to one of his colleagues, the students were from a hockey practice across the field for the upcoming school championships in Burundi, when a lorry crushed Njenga to death.
“Njenga was taken to the school’s clinic before he was rushed to the nearby Coptic Hospital where he died,” said the student.
Efforts to get a comment from the school’s principal were futile as he said he was on the road driving and would get back to us but never did.
Distraught
Njenga’s father, Kamau Mbuthi and family are distraught. The loss of their lastborn son, who was in Form Two, has devasted them.
“I had just come from work when one of my son’s teachers called me at around 9pm. He said my son had been admitted to Coptic Hospital in critical condition and that I should make my way there in the company of someone else,” said Mbuthi. Immediately, Mbuthi says he got his wife and brother-in-law who accompanied him to the hospital. When he got to the casualty department, he saw some teachers but none was willing to come closer. He knew then that all was not well.
Mbuthi was then informed that his son had succumbed to his injuries after the accident at school. Then they asked him the hardest question any parent would want to answer: “Which mortuary would you like your son’s body to be preserved?”
Sought answers
He didn’t respond immediately. He sought answers first.
“They told me that a lorry had crushed him on his way from practising hockey in a field at the school. Apparently the lorry had lost control, veered off the road and plunged into John, who was ahead of the group of players,” says Mbuthi.
He says although the school has been supportive, the pain of loss is inexpressive — he lost a child who was bright with a promising future, he says.
“From the time he was young, John was an active student, both in class and in the field. He had a good academic record and I remember a week before he passed away, I was at their school to assist him choose subjects and he said he wanted to be a quantity surveyor computer scientist,” says Mbuthi.
