Butcher loses three employees in accident after drinking spree

The bodies of the three wokers were identified by their relatives yesterday at Murang'a County Hospital mortuary after a two-day search. [Istockphoto]

Three people who were killed in a road accident on Friday morning along Sagana-Kagio road were employees of A butchery at Ngurubani in Mwea East Sub-county.

The bodies of the three, Paul Muriithi, Oliver Kathukumi and Joseph Mwangi were identified by their relatives yesterday at Murang'a County Hospital mortuary after a two-day search.

It emerged that they were employees of 'Kwa Munyua Rafiki' butchery in Ngurubani town owned by Francis Munyua. They had, together with a fourth employee, gone to Sagana town - 26 kilometres away - on a drinking spree on Thursday night.

Morris Kariuki was the fourth passenger on the motorcycle when they left Ngurubani for Sagana but his colleagues reportedly fell out with him at the bar when he declined to buy them beer.

Kariuki said that while at the bar, he left his colleagues and went to a nearby petrol station to buy petrol for the motorcycle so that they could travel back to Ngurubani. However, when he returned to the bar, they told him that they wanted more alcohol and not the petrol that he had bought.

Kariuki said one of them hit him with a stone before they ganged up to fight him, but he was rescued by other patrons in the bar.

He said when he went back to work on Friday, the three colleagues did not report. In the evening he learnt that they did not show up at home either, prompting a search that ended with their bodies being found at the mortuary in the neighboring county.

Joyce Muthoni, a neighbour to the butchery, said the four men tried to wake her up on Thursday night to join them but she declined, saying she was tired and wanted to sleep.

"In the morning, I realised they had not reported working. I sent one of my workers to go to their houses and wake them up before their boss found out but they were not in the houses either," said Muthoni.

Munyua, the owner of the butchery, said the death of the three is a big blow to him and the community, saying it had taken a lot of effort and time to train them on the work.

According to police, the accident involved a boda boda and a matatu on Friday morning. The matatu headed towards Sagana from Kagio had a head-on collision with the boda boda that was carrying two pillion passengers at Kahiro shopping centre.

The three on the boda boda died on the spot whereas six passengers in the 14-seater matatu were rushed to Sagana Sub-county Hospital where one of them died on arrival.

Witnesses said the boda boda was being driven at a very high speed before the crash and that the rider and the two pillion passengers were shouting.