Kiambu contractor grader kills one, injures another in Limuru

Grade One pupil killed by contractor’s grader as safety fears grow in Limuru. [File, Standard]

A village in Limuru is mourning after a grader crushed to death a Grade One pupil and injured another while making the Kamandura Mau summit stretch at Kwambira.

According to John Njuguna, the family spokesman, Alex Nganga and his twin brother Anthony Muiruri, pupils at Limuru Model School, were walking home when a grader belonging to China CRBC lost control and crushed one of the twins to death and injured the other.

“Our twins were walking from school and since the construction of the Kamandura started, we have been having difficulties crossing the road, so yesterday a grader killed Nganga and injured Anthony. We were called to the scene and found him lying lifeless while his brother writhed in pain. We took the injured kid to a Limuru facility before moving him to Kikuyu Hospital for more treatment. Meanwhile, the dead boy was taken to Tigoni Hospital mortuary,” Njuguna said.

Njuguna said the village is mourning, having asked the contractor to make an underpass for kids and villagers to use instead of risking crossing the busy Nairobi-Nakuru highway.

“We have cried a lot; we thought it was enough, but we have found ourselves crying more. This pupil who has come to visit us, in as much as they have come to warm our hearts, we can’t help but imagine if they were with our beloved boy,” Njuguna said

Villagers, teachers and pupils from Limuru Model thronged the homestead, talking in hushed tones in groups with intermittent breaks of loud cries as they mourned their departed schoolmate.

Limuru Model Board of Management chairperson, Isaack Ndereva, who was at the deceased's home, said that as a school, they have come to console the family and offer moral support for losing the young one.

“We call upon the contractor doing this stretch to consider that Kamirithu is a densely populated place and many children cross over to nearby Limuru town, risking their lives while dashing on the road. The stretch became more dangerous when the contractor closed the Kamirithu underpass, where children used to cross, leaving them without an option,” Ndereva said

Ndereva asked the contractor to consider deploying people to control traffic when children are crossing.

“Children, unlike grown-ups, may not make a correct judgement on such a highway. We need traffic marshals here; if we had one, he would have noted the moving grader stopped the children and averted this death. We are truly pained,” Ndereva said.

Teachers described the late Nganga as an obedient and focused boy whose future looked bright.

“As teachers, we spend most of the time with children; actually, we are with them for over 10 hours daily and therefore we develop a bond with these young ones. We are their parents at school and the loss is devastating,” said Georgina Basil, the headteacher.