By GASTONE VALUSI
Samuel Maitha Kilonzo left home on his motorbike to meet his daughter. He never returned.
The 58-year-old resident of Kyeleni Village in Matungulu Sub-County was heading to Kilimambogo on Sunday evening to collect a gift his sixth-born daughter, Josephine Maitha, had brought from Kitui County — a Camon 20 mobile phone worth Sh15,000.
“When we last talked, I asked him whether he would make it to Kilimambogo to pick up his phone, and he asked me, ‘Why are you doubting me, Sis?’” Josephine recalled.
Her father fondly called her “Sis” because she was named after his own sister.
But the phone never reached his hands.
The incident occurred at the narrow Donyo Sabuk Bridge over River Athi, which has no guardrails after they were reportedly vandalised and sold as scrap metal.
The family disputes the suggestion that Kilonzo’s death was an accident, alleging that he was assaulted and pushed off the bridge following an altercation with a motorist.
His nephew, Sebastian Kilonzo, who was travelling with him, said a car hit their motorbike on the bridge, triggering an argument over who had the right of way.
“The vehicle owner argued that the motorbike riders should have waited for him to pass since it was a narrow bridge,” Sebastian said.
The family alleges that the driver slapped Kilonzo and pushed him over the bridge before fleeing in his vehicle.
Sebastian said he pursued the motorist long enough to capture the vehicle’s registration number before returning to the river, but darkness had already set in.
Matungulu OCPD Peter Gichohi yesterday said detectives had launched investigations after residents alerted police to the incident.
“We received reports that there was an accident between a vehicle and a motorbike at the Donyo Bridge. The motorbike pedal touched the vehicle. The vehicle had three passengers. A 58-year-old man started an altercation with the vehicle occupants but slipped into the river,” Gichohi said.
He added that investigations were underway to establish exactly what happened.
Gichohi said the vehicle was heading towards Donyo Sabuk while the motorbike was travelling towards Kilimambogo when the incident occurred on Sunday evening.
He appealed to residents to provide any information that could help detectives trace the vehicle and cautioned motorists and other road users against road rage and taking the law into their own hands.
For Josephine, the call from her cousin asking her to abandon her journey and return home was difficult to comprehend.
“Before I reached Kilimambogo, my cousin called me and told me to return because something had happened. I thought it was a joke,” she said, clutching the boxed phone she had intended to give her father.
The family said efforts to secure assistance from the Kiambu and Machakos county governments proved unsuccessful.
They eventually hired private divers, who retrieved Kilonzo’s body from the river on Monday evening at a cost of Sh35,000.
Josephine, the sixth-born in a family of seven, is now demanding the arrest and prosecution of the motorist allegedly involved in her father’s death.
Kilonzo’s body was taken to Donyo Sabuk Funeral Home.
