Nyeri village mourns Mandera attack victims

The horror of terror revisited Chaka in Nyeri County on Tuesday: six people killed in an Al-Shabaab attack in Mandera are from one village.

They are Zachariah Wambugu Ndung’u (35), Charles Macharia Gachagua, (27), Samuel Kinyua (36), Charles Njiri Mathenge (39), Joseph Karumba Wahome (46), and Peter Warui Rurumo (26) from Gathathi Village.

A total of 14 people were killed and 10 others were injured after the terrorists attacked Soko Mbuzi Village near Mandera Town on Tuesday at around 1am.

By 10am, family members left Nyeri for Nairobi to wait for their loved ones’ bodies.

FRANTIC EFFORTS

When the Nation visited four families in the village, they told us they learnt of the attacks through friends of their sons, who also work in Mandera but live in a different village.

Relatives said they made frantic efforts to get in touch with their sons in vain.

“I received the news around 2am from a colleague of my son, who told me the village in which he lived had been attacked. He told me my son was among those who had been killed,” said Mr William Ndung’u, the father of Mr Wambugu.

According to Mr Ndung’u, his son, the father of a 14-year-old girl, decided to go to Mandera in search of greener pastures after he separated with his wife.

“My son opted to go to Mandera because there are many job opportunities. The government had assured that security had been beefed up in that county and other parts of northern Kenya. That gave my son confidence to go and work as a quarry miner,” said Mr Ndung’u.

The father, however, said he was against his son going to Mandera because of previous terror attacks, but he had no control over his son’s decision.

Mr Wambugu’s mother, Mrs Muthoni Ndung’u, said she last talked to her son by phone on Monday afternoon. She said her son urged her and the entire family to continue praying for them as things were still difficult in Mandera.

The parents described their son as a humble and hardworking man.

Another victim, Mr Gachagua, who went to Mandera a month-and-a-half ago, died while being treated at a hospital in Mandera.

“We were told he died around 6am,” said Ms Agnes Muthoni, a family friend.

At Mr Mathenge’s home, his wife and children learnt of their father’s death at around 2am.

The father of one boy and four girls had worked in Mandera for the past five years.

PAID HANDSOMELY

At Mr Wahome’s home, his sister, Ms Elizabeth Mwihaki, said she had warned her brother against going to Mandera, but he did not heed her advice. Mr Karumba was the father of a girl and a boy aged 12 and 6 years, respectively.

According to a resident, Ms Nancy Mureithi, most young men in Chaka and Kiganjo in Nyeri opt to work in quarries when they are unable to advance their education after completing high school.

She said the quarries in Mandera pay handsomely.

In December last year, grief engulfed neighbouring villages of Gatie, Ndiriti and Kiganjo. A total of 16 out of 36 quarry workers killed by Al-Shabaab terrorists in Mandera’s Koromey quarry were from the villages.

Relatives of the victims of the latest attack are asking the government why this has happened again, yet it had assured Kenyans that it had intensified security operations in northern Kenya and other parts of the country.