Kirinyaga: 18-year-old survives after being doused with petrol, set ablaze over phone theft

An 18-year-old man is nursing serious burns at the Kerugoya County Referral Hospital after he was doused with petrol and set ablaze by a group of people who accused him of stealing a mobile phone in Kiangai, Kirinyaga County.

Jesse Nyaga Wachira says he was beaten, threatened with knives and forced to drink petrol before his attackers allegedly set him on fire after he failed to produce the phone he was accused of stealing.

Wachira, who is now covered in bandages, says his ordeal began after he was hired by a man he knew to help transport manure from Kiangai to Thunguri.

He hired a pick-up truck to assist with loading and transporting the manure.

After delivering the manure and returning to Kiangai, Wachira says the owner of the pick-up informed him that the man who had hired them was accusing him of stealing his phone.

“I was shocked and told him I had no phone and I cannot steal,” Jesse said from his hospital bed.

Wachira says the situation escalated when a boda boda chairman he knew arrived with three other people after allegedly being summoned by the man who had hired him.

According to Jesse, the group began beating him and demanding that he produce the missing phone, despite his insistence that he knew nothing about it.

He was then placed on a motorcycle and taken to the home of a neighbour of the man who had hired him, apparently in an attempt to establish what had happened.

However, Jesse says the man maintained that he had stolen the phone.

Unable to produce the phone, Jesse alleges that he was beaten and taken to an area near Kiangai Police Post, where his attackers told a female police officer that he was a thief.

He says that after the officer left, the group took him to another location near Kiangai, where he was beaten further.

Jesse alleges that some of the people involved, whom he knew personally, threatened him with two knives and warned that he would be killed if he did not produce the phone.

He says the attackers then doused him with petrol and set him on fire.

“I was forced to drink petrol before they set me on fire. I could not believe the people who were beating me — most are my friends who we chew miraa with,” Jesse said.

Jesse says he managed to roll on the grass when the flames started, helping to put out the fire before running to Kiangai Dispensary, located a few metres from where he had allegedly been attacked.

“By God’s mercy, I was able to run to Kiangai Dispensary, which was a few metres from where the incident was happening. I did not know what had happened until I found myself in hospital,” he said.

Speaking at the Kerugoya County Referral Hospital, Jesse’s aunt, Florence Muringo, said his grandfather was contacted by Nyumba Kumi officials and asked to accompany him to hospital after the dispensary management called for an ambulance.

“When he was rushed to the hospital, nobody could believe he would survive,” Muringo said.

The family, led by Muringo and Dickson Mwangi, is now demanding justice for Jesse.

Residents of Kiangai have expressed shock over the incident, with questions emerging over how a government employee could allegedly hire boda boda operators to attack an 18-year-old over allegations of phone theft.

The man who allegedly hired the youth is said to work for the Ministry of Education at the Karatina office in Nyeri County.

Confirming the incident, Kirinyaga West Sub-County Police Commander Julius Gaya described it as a serious incident, saying several suspects were being sought and one person had already been arrested.

“We will arrest all those who were involved,” the police boss said.