The message in gospel singer Rose Muhando’s hit tune Tenda Wema, Nenda Zako (loosely translated as “do good deeds without expecting any reward”) is the driving force behind the acts of many a Good Samaritan.
When Daniel Mburu Wangari answered a distress call by a neighbour, whose child had been saved from drowning in River Korogocho and rushed the little one and his mother to Mama Lucy Hospital in Nairobi’s Komarock Ward, little did he know that this would be his last act of kindness.
What transpired at Mama Lucy Hospital, if witness accounts are to be believed, is murder most foul.
Mburu was granted access to take the two-and-a-half-year-old boy to the emergency section in spite of the hospital banning motorcycles from the compound.
This is where his problems began, leading to his death. According to witnesses, security officers at the hospital demanded a Sh50 bribe for allowing his motorcycle into the hospital’s compound.
“They told him no one is allowed to park where he had parked and he should, therefore, part with Sh50 which he said he did not have. Other riders told him he could park outside and so he requested the guards to let him move his bike outside the hospital,” a witness said.
The guards, said the riders, were adamant that he must pay before they release his motorcycle. A scuffle ensued, he was overpowered, and asked for forgiveness.
“Nisameheni tafadhali; wacha nichukue pikipiki niende (Please forgive me; let me take my motorcycle and leave),” he begged.
According to a witness, the guards called police officers and claimed he was an unruly intruder.
AP officers arrived as guards were taking him into their sentry post at the gate. One of the officers cocked his gun and shot him in the chest.
“He saw me in distress after a clinic had referred me to the hospital. He told me to mount his bike and brought me here. By the time we arrived, we had already been joined by four others, but they did not follow us into the emergency section.
“We took the child to a doctor and he was told to leave,” said Agnes Waheti, the boy’s mother.
The child had fallen into the river while playing with friends. While in the doctor’s room, Ms Waheti narrated, she heard a commotion and saw Mburu being dragged by security guards.
“I rushed to find out what was happening and found them asking him why he rode in with the motorbike. They took him to the security office then I heard a gunshot. He was then taken to the casualty already dead,” she said.
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One of Mburu’s friends collected the spent cartridge from the scene of the shooting.
“That officer shot dead a man who had already been subdued by guards and was right in their custody, and walked away. I saw his colleagues in sheer anger over the shooting,” a witness said.
Independent Policing Oversight Authority spokesman Dennis Oketch said they had dispatched a rapid response team to the scene to begin investigations.
Chaos erupted as police engaged protesting youths in running battles. They protested outside the hospital, baying for the killer policeman’s blood.
(H/T Nations)