This archive report was first published on 10 August 2019.
August 7, 2018, was a day that changed Wairimu Muthoni's life forever. The 26-year-old was on her way to Westlands to deposit money in her sacco when she boarded a Super Metro minibus from Moi Avenue. However, the minibus was not going to Westlands but Juja, and the conductor refused to drop her at Ngara without her change.
Wairimu insisted on her change, but the driver became impatient and slapped her hard, shoved her out of the minibus, and flung her belongings at her. She was left badly bleeding, her face puffed up, and her phone broken. The minibus sped off, leaving her with only the first letters of its registration plate, KCH.
Wairimu knew she had to report the assault, so she flagged down a boda-boda and asked the rider to take her to the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) office on Kiambu Road. However, her ordeal was far from over. She was told to report to Pangani OCS, where she was given a P3 form and directed to MSF for a doctor to stamp it. However, the doctor, Dr. Ian, was not available, and it took two more visits and threats for another doctor to stamp the form.
Wairimu's determination to bring her assaulter to book was unwavering. She spent hours ticking off the minibuses in Super Metro's fleet, but the one she had been assaulted in didn't come in. She took to social media to air the incident, and it was from these retweets that she got an audience with NTSA. After several progressive visits, they got her the owner of the minibus from their logbook records.
However, the case was dismissed at Makadara Law Courts in early September because the defendant didn't produce the driver who'd assaulted her. Wairimu was back to the motions again, and she knew she was just being taken in circles.
Wairimu's case is not an isolated incident. There have been several cases of women being shoved off buses and dying as a result. In January 2013, a woman was shoved off a moving matatu from Kawangware and died on the spot. In March 2019, a woman and her child were ejected from a Meru-SACCO matatu after she protested ferrying of excess passengers. In July 2019, another woman was shoved off a moving Kileleshwa matatu and died at Kenyatta Hospital three days later.
