What a ride! Five women fight for boda boda man

Peter Mwangi’s family after his funeral on Wednesday. Following his death, five women claiming to be his widows fought each other. [Munene Kamau, Standard]

Few knew Peter Mwangi beyond his boda boda business -- until April 28 when he died in a road accident.

After the fatal accident at Nyangati section of the Embu-Mwea road, it emerged that Mwangi, who owned many motorbikes, led a lavish lifestyle and loved women.

During his funeral on Wednesday, five women -- each carrying “his child’’ -- assaulted each other after they met for the first time at the Kerugoya County Referral Hospital mortuary to collect his body for burial.

According to Mwangi’s grandmother Eunice Wangithi, who brought him up after his parents died when he was young, only Susan Wakuthii was known to the family.

Taxi empire

“My grandson came home in the company of Wakuthii whom he introduced to me as his wife. I told her she was more than welcome to the family,“ the 85-year-old granny said.

She said she was close to Mwangi whom she described as generous and kind. Mwangi, 32, lived in a rented house at Kimbimbi market, Mwea East Sub-county. He hailed from Ngomongo village within the outskirts of Kutus town.

At Kimbimbi, Mwangi had established a boda boda empire where his business was to buy motorbikes and assign them to the youth.

He was said to have built his business from a single boda. By the time of his death, he had more than 20, each assigned to a rider who was expected to bring him an average Sh350 daily.

Besides the boda boda business, Mwangi also engaged in rice farming at his Ngomongo village and several other parts of the Mwea Irrigation Scheme.

He was a man of means, his uncle Stanley Njogu said. This may have pushed him to have a string of women.

On Wednesday morning, only Wakuthii accompanied Mwangi’s immediate family members in a convoy that went to collect his body at the mortuary.

“We left home peacefully with Wakuthii and her three-year-old son, but on arrival at the morgue, two women -- one with a baby strapped on her back and the other pregnant -- confronted us, demanding to be included in the programme as they were Mwangi’s widows,” Wangithi said.

In the ensuing confusion, the granny recalled, two other women showed up and caused a stir when they stormed the mortuary and told the attendant not to issue the burial permit until they were recognised as Mwangi’s widows.

Perplexed by the unfolding events, Njogu asked the five women to calm down.

Burial permit

Instead, they started fighting, calling each other names.

It took for the intervention of Kanyekini MCA Harrison Ngiria, said to be a relative of the deceased, to calm the situation. He convinced the five women to accompany him to the nearby police station.

After listening to all sides, the Kerugoya OCS ordered that Njogu, the deceased’s uncle, be issued with the burial permit. He told the women they were free to attend the burial ceremony at Ngomongo village.

“To our surprise, only Wakuthii showed up at the funeral. The others disappeared into the crowd at the mortuary, bringing to an end the free for all daylight drama,” Njogu said.

When Saturday Standard visited the family, Njogu said Wakuthii should consider herself as part and parcel of them since she has a son with Mwangi. The grave in which Mwangi was laid to rest is located in a lonely corner of the homestead his parents once occupied.