Police accused of cover up after Jaguar’s car kills two in accident

Lucy Wanjiru mourns her son Peter Mugo who was killed alongside his passenger when a car belonging to musician Charles Kanyi, popularly known as Jaguar, hit them along Sagana-Makutano highway on Wednesday. [Photo: Munene Kamau/Standard]

Police in Mwea, Kirinyaga County, are on the spot for allegedly trying to cover up a fatal accident involving a car belonging to musician Charles Kanyi popularly known as Jaguar.

The accident involving Jaguar's Range Rover Sports claimed the lives of a boda boda rider, Peter Mugo, 27, and his passenger, Sinfolian Maingi, 25, a bar attendant.

The car is said to have knocked down the rider and his passenger along Sagana-Makutano highway.

Although the musician insists he was the one behind the wheel, another theory backed by witnesses, has it that the car was being driven by a woman who was in the company of two other people.

Mwea West OCPD Sameul Seurey has maintained Jaguar was the driver of the vehicle during the 4pm accident and has since recorded a statement.

"We have already opened a file on the incident. We are calling on anyone with information to come forward and give their account," Seurey said.

Jaguar did not pick our calls Thursday but according to a statement he recorded with the police, he was the driver at the time of the accident.

Residents who witnessed the Wednesday afternoon crash claimed the speeding vehicle was being driven by a woman in a blue dress with two passengers, also women.

Denis Kuria, a boda boda operator, said he was at the scene and witnessed the accident.

"My colleague was just about to start his bike to ferry his passenger to Makutano market when suddenly a vehicle rammed into it. The motorbike and the two men were tossed into the air," said Kuria.

Kuria said the vehicle did not stop immediately. It stopped a few metres away when residents started shouting and stoning it.

Another witness, Joyce Kinyua, who runs a business at Kwaritho, said were it not for the intervention of the public, the driver would have fled.

"On seeing what had happened, which was like a scene from Hollywood, I screamed attracting the attention of a group of construction workers at a nearby site. They forced the driver to stop as others hurled stones at the car," said Ms Kinyua.

She said a woman, who was allegedly driving the car, disembarked and could have been stripped by angry residents. She was saved by Administration Police officers from a nearby camp.

Kinyua said some of the residents who came to witness what had happened, who included other boda boda operators, sent for petrol and were ready to burn down the vehicle.

"Police officers who rushed to the scene had to cock their guns to scare away the surging crowd which appeared determined to lynch the woman," she claimed.

She said the woman made some phone calls before three men arrived. One of the men is alleged to have been Jaguar.

Mugo's mother, Lucy Wanjiru, an ECDE teacher, wailed uncontrollably when she arrived at the scene. Her son's body was badly battered and the motorcycle had been damaged extensively.

"I was escorted to the scene by my colleague who had received the shocking news from my husband through a phone call," Wanjiru said.

"It is heartbreaking for me to lose my son, he was still too young. How could he have died through such a horrific accident?" said the mother of three.

Jaguar's bodyguard was reported to have collected the vehicle from Sagana Police Station on Thursday after it was inspected by the police, while the mangled motorcycle is at the station's yard.