Tiribute To A Fallen Comrade

Things will never be the same for 25-year old Felix Mwirigi, a third year student at the University of Nairobi's Kikuyu campus who cradled his dying colleague from the campus to Karen Hospital. His friend Francis Maina, a third year Bachelor of Education student died after jumping from the sixth floor of his campus hostel room on Sunday morning after an underground electrical cable exploded.

The students thought the explosion was a terrorist attack and frantically tried to escape. While some used the staircases in the hostel, others decided to jump through windows.

Like his colleagues, the late Maina was also trying to escape but ended up succumbing to the serious injuries he sustained from the fall.

“I had never seen a dead person so close.” said Mwirigi.

Mwirigi was one of the students who was sleeping in Kimberly hostel when the electrical cable exploded in the wee hours of Sunday.

“I first heard girls screaming and then there were heavy footsteps of people running down the stairs. That is when I got up and ran out too,” recalled Mwirigi, who was in his room on the fourth floor.

“When I was out of the hostel, I saw people falling from windows like luggage that was being thrown down. It was horrifying to see human beings fall that way.”

Though many students were screaming for help, it was Maina’s bleeding that attracted Mwirigi’s attention.

“He was bleeding from all openings. I ran from the campus to the road where other students gathered to get a car to rush him to hospital since the school’s ambulance was not around,” he said on Monday during an interview at Nation Centre.

Mr Maina however succumbed to his injuries while on the way to hospital. “If there was immediate response, I am sure his life would have been saved. I don’t regret that my clothes were drenched in blood. I only mourn the death of my comrade,” said a melancholic Mwirigi.

Mr Maina’s friend described him as a reserved person who loved politics.

“I was with him on Saturday evening discussing the just concluded campus election which our team had won,” said Dickson Mwalimu, also a student at the university. Since the tension was high, he decided to go to the school’s club and have a drink before going to bed. I never knew that would be the last time I would see him alive,” added Mwalimu as he conducted a fundraising for his friend.

Reference : www.nation.co.ke