It’s close shave with death for bar worker who was main target

Florence Marigu is a lucky woman. She was meant to take the first bullet in the gun of her former policeman boyfriend.

Enraged by her decision to end their love affair, Constable Peter Karanja, with his G-3 rifle loaded with 10 bullets, first went to Coconut Bar, where she worked as a barmaid.

Fortunately for her, she had left her work place earlier than usual and the people Karanja found in the bar — her workmate and her a customer — were the first to be shot dead.

For someone who came that close to death, Ms Marigu was calm and composed on Monday, back to work at the bar until authorities shut it down under pressure from the public.

The mother of two says Karanja, who killed 10 people as he moved from bar to bar looking for her, was her former boyfriend. At the end of each burst of gun fire, he would call her name and shout that he had killed another group of people and ask her where she was.

She says he had been at Coconut Bar for most of the day on Saturday and did not show any sign of violence.

“He was here drinking and left at some point, about 15 minutes to four telling me that he was going to report on duty,” Ms Marigu told the Daily Nation in Siakago.

She said Karanja went back to Coconut Bar at 7 pm and told her that he had decided not to report on duty all together.

That did not bother her as she continued with her duty, serving other customers while talking to him at intervals.

According to her, their relationship ended in January when Karanja left for training at the Administration Police Training College in Embakasi, Nairobi.

When he came back, they met early in September and his request that they continue with their friendship hit a dead end. Ms Marigu informed him that she had moved on.

“He wanted us to become friends again but I refused. I just did not feel like it,” says this mother of two boys, aged seven and four.

The police officer, who was taken to the Embu Court on Monday to be charged with murder is said to have told those close to him that he was looking for Marigu to kill her as he shot whoever else he came across in her absence.

Indeed, according to Ms Marigu, Mr Karanja called her a few minutes past 10 pm to announce that he had killed some people at Coconut Bar where she was the target.

Ms Marigu had left her workplace earlier than usual since there were no more customers. The only people she left behind were her colleague and one patron whom she said was her boyfriend. The two were killed.

“He called me and told me that he was looking for me and that the moment he catches up with me, he would kill me. I was so afraid that I ran away from my house and went to sleep in a nearby lodging,” she said.

He was to call her again, this time just before 11 pm and told her that he had killed more people at the nearby Wa-Kiabi bar and that he was still looking for her.

Mr Karanja was to call her for the third time from the Siakago police station.

“He told me that he had killed 10 people and that he had handed himself to the police, He told me to pray and thank God that I am still alive. That is the last time I heard from him,” she said.

In the morning she was to learn all that happened from those that saw and had heard about the whole story.

“At least now I am not afraid. Thank God he is in police custody. I know he is no longer a threat to me,” said Ms Marigu.

Area police boss Jecinta Wesonga ordered Coconut Bar closed for security reasons.

Area DC John Chelimo was chairing a meeting with representatives of the bereaved families to arrange for funeral.

Some of the family members that the Nation spoke to were keen to find out if the government had plans to compensate them since Mr Karanja is a government employee.

Area MP Lenny Kivuti spent the whole of Sunday visiting the bereaved to console them.