The expensive bar brawl: How Nyeri man lost valued land

A distraught George Wachira Kirira outside the ramshackle that he calls home. [Mose Sammy/ Standard]

Before 1982, George Wachira led a fairly enviable life. Mr Wachira, then 35, was married to Nancy Wanjira and they had nine children whom they raised on his six-acre piece of land on which he grew coffee in Kabiruini Village near the Sagana State Lodge in Nyeri County.

Once in a while, he and his friend Joe Ruthuthi, a teacher at the village primary school, would step out for a tipple at Kiamariga Bar where they whiled away the hours.