Sagana is famous for fishers of men, but also for the diligent, honest mechanics at Rubis

A Rubis petrol station on June 26, 2025. [Boniface Okendo, Standard]

They say when the going gets tough, the tough gets going. And so, last Sunday, the bleakness of the day was prologued by a drizzle that did nothing to dampen the mood that we had an exciting journey ahead.

Surprisingly, the troupe of four, including yours truly, kept time— all arriving ahead of the appointed hour of 7.30am. This military discipline was probably informed by our host—a military man who keeps time with similar zeal.

Driving out of town at a gentle, steady pace, we marvelled at the contrasts of the countryside, with wooded zones and rolling hills giving way to the dry shrub lands and savannah. I was too drawn to these vistas when I felt a little shudder of the vehicle.

Before I could work out if the jolt was real or imagined, the lights on the dashboard flashed. I got off the road and re-ignited, hoping the car was hallucinating. The lights flickered back on. I decided to drive to the nearest fuel station, a Rubis, near Sagana.

We tried to work out the mystery: the fuel tank was full, could it be adulterated fuel? Not possible, I said. I had fuelled there for years, without incident. And this was a large entity, not the meeky mouse operations that deal in siphoned fuel products.

The man of the moment was Samuel Mwing’alya, a diligent mechanic at the fuel station who accurately diagnosed the problem(s): the spark plugs and throttle were clogged, as was the element. He mobilised those items by phoning his contacts so that we were back on the road within no time.

A relation of mine wasn’t as lucky. In recent weeks, his car broke down, thanks to a failed fuel pump. It took him three days and nights before he was evacuated from Kathageri, in the heart of Embu, because he had landed upon roadside crooks masquerading as mechanics.

They did a good job of damaging his financial reserves because he had to buy three different fuel pumps and none could quite fit, which speaks to the quality of the advice dispensed by the roadside mechanics.