How gang attack at a Kisii school changed guard’s life forever
It is exactly 7.45am in Riabigutu village, Nyaribari Chache Constituency in Kisii County on Thursday March 11, 2021. A young man, Mr Kevin Sunda, welcomes us to his father’s homestead of. We are here to follow up on the condition of his ailing father whose throat was slit by robbers seven years ago
In the homestead sits an old grass-thatched structure which serves as his parents’ main house. Our attention is drawn to the distraught faces of two teenage girls, each with a toddler perched on her back. Nonetheless, they afford a “karibu abageni” (welcome visitors) for us as they usher us into their father’s house.
Inside, sitting on a neatly covered wooden couch, is a man with a pipe attached to his throat, one injured eye and a paralysed left hand.
He smiles on seeing us. His name is Patrick Mogere, 49. This is his home.
Mr Mogere was expecting us. He wants to speak and express his happiness but his voice is too faint. He ends up whispering and expressing his thoughts with sign language.
Mr Patrick Mogere (left) with his daughter Joyce Mogiti and son Kevin Sunda (right) at their home in in Riabigutu village, Nyaribari Chache in Kisii County.
School watchman
By February 2014, Mr Mogere had worked for three years as a watchman at Bobaracho Day High School. Then, his children say, he was full of energy and was the family’s breadwinner.
Today, Mr Mogere is a very different man. He struggles to breathe and has to go for frequent medical check-ups. He can barely move and he has been confined to doing light duties within his homestead.
During our interview, his fourth-born daughter, Joyce Mogiti, 19, helps to narrate his father’s predicament.
“We are a family of seven siblings. My father was everything for us. I was in Form One when robbers attacked him at his place of work one night. The assailants had targeted to steal from a computer lab in the school. Since then, we have been struggling to survive. We have been nursing him like a small child,” explained Ms Mogiti.
When the ordeal occurred, Mr Mogere was not alone. The robbers had seized his fellow watchman and tied him to a tree next to a river that cuts through the school’s compound. Fortunately for him, he escaped unhurt.
“It was around 2am when robbers broke into the school that my father was guarding. They attacked him with a machete, leaving him with serious injuries. Perhaps they thought he had died,” narrated Ms Mogiti.
Mr Patrick Mogere (left) with his daughter Joyce Mogiti at their home on March 11, 2021. Nobody was arrested following the incident that left Mr Mogere seriously injured.
Slit his throat
They slit his throat, slashed him severely on the head and hit his left hand using a blunt object.
He had nothing to defend himself with, but just whispered a word of prayer: “The son of God, please remember me”.
Students who arrived in the school for morning preps found Mr Mogere lying on the ground, helpless and with blood stains all over.
He was rushed to Kisii Teaching and Referral Hospital (KTRH) but doctors at the facility referred him to Tenwek Mission Hospital in Bomet County.
That year violent robbery incidents had become very rampant in Kisii County, which prompted the strengthening of a local community policing initiative.
Following the incident, Mr Mogere spent three weeks in the intensive care unit (ICU) and five months in the ward at Tenwek Mission Hospital. To their credit, doctors at the hospital managed to save his life. However, they advised him to be going for frequent check-ups since his throat still had a serious scar.
Exhausted resources
His son, Sunda, recalls that they only managed to foot the medical bills that had amounted to Sh500,000 through a fundraiser. They now depend on well-wishers to facilitate check-ups since they have exhausted their resources.
Ever since, no help has ever come their way from the government except that the victim’s wife, Ms Agnes Nyanchama, was employed by the school where her husband worked.
“My mother was consequently employed by Bobaracho High School for the security job and currently she is the family’s breadwinner with her meagre resources,” Ms Mogiti says.
He adds that her other three siblings have all finished secondary school and, due to financial constraints, have not managed to go for further studies apart from doing some supplementary courses like computing. They now do menial jobs in the village to earn a living.
Ms Mogiti says three of her other siblings are still in school, with the youngest being in Class Five.
No Covid-19 relief
The family says it was not considered in the government programme that was meant to caution the less privileged from the effects of Covid-19.
“We leave our fate to God. However, I am calling upon anyone who might want to help us to come forward. We are suffering. My dad is suffering,” says a distraught Ms Mogiti.
Nobody was arrested following the incident that left Mr Mogere seriously injured. But he says he forgave the assailants and left everything to God. BY DAILY NATION
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