For 18-year-old Jesse Nyaga Wachira, a missing mobile phone turned what began as an ordinary day’s work into a terrifying fight for survival.
Today, he lies in a hospital bed at Kerugoya County Referral Hospital, his body wrapped in bandages and nursing serious injuries after he was allegedly beaten, doused with petrol and set on fire by a mob in Kiangai, Ndia, Kirinyaga county.
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His family is now demanding justice.
“I was shocked and told him I had no phone and I cannot steal,” Wachira recalled from his hospital bed.
The teenager said he had been hired by a man he knew to transport manure to Thunguri. He hired a pick-up to help with loading and transportation.
After delivering the manure, the pick-up dropped him back at Kiangai. Minutes later, its owner allegedly told him that the man who had hired them was accusing him of stealing his phone.
Wachira denied having the phone, but the accusation quickly turned violent.
He said a boda boda chairman he knew arrived with three other people after allegedly being called by the man who had hired him.
The group allegedly descended on him, beating him and demanding that he produces the missing phone. Wachira maintained that he knew nothing about it.
He was then placed on a motorcycle and taken to the home of a neighbour of the man who had hired him, apparently in an attempt to establish what had happened.
But the accusation did not change.
Wachira said the man maintained that he had stolen the phone. Unable to produce it, he was allegedly beaten again before being taken near Kiangai police post.
His attackers reportedly told a female police officer that he was a thief.
Instead of ending there, the ordeal continued.
Wachira said the group took him to another location, where the assault resumed. Two people he knew allegedly threatened him with knives and demanded that he reveals where the phone was.
He insisted he did not have it.
Then, he says, the attack took a horrifying turn.
“I was forced to drink petrol before they set me on fire. I could not believe that most of the people who were beating me were friends and we chew miraa together,” he said.
As flames engulfed him, Wachira fought to stay alive. He managed to put out the fire by rolling on the grass before running towards Kiangai Dispensary, a short distance from where the alleged attack took place.
His aunt, Florence Muringo, said the family feared the worst when they were contacted by Nyumba Kumi officials and went to see him at the hospital.
Initially, she said, they were doubtful that Wachira would survive.
Now, Muringo is leading the family’s pursuit of justice. She wants everyone involved in the attack arrested and prosecuted.
The incident has left residents of Kiangai questioning how an allegation over a missing phone could have escalated into such brutal violence against an 18-year-old.
The man alleged to have hired Wachira works for the Ministry of Education at its Karatina office in Nyeri county.
Kirinyaga West Subcounty Police Commander Julius Gaya described the incident as serious.
He said several suspects were being pursued and one person had already been arrested.
“We will arrest all those who were involved,” Gaya said, adding that investigations were ongoing as Wachira remained admitted at Kerugoya County Referral Hospital.
For his family, the wait is now for justice—and for the young man who survived the flames to begin rebuilding his life.
