Nakuru mother mourns eight-year-old son, swept away by floods

As Glen Karanja’s mother stood over the body of her 8-year-old son, she wept uncontrollably, unable to comprehend what had happened to him.

Her son, a Grade 2 pupil, had left home earlier that morning, as he always did, from their home in Kirima village, Bahati Constituency. Together with his sister, they made their way to Lenana Primary School.

Priscilla Karanja says her children usually leave school at 3:30 p.m. and head straight home. However, yesterday (Wednesday), while she was in the Section 58 area, she received a phone call instructing her to go to the Milimani junction (on the road leading to the Senator’s office) because something had happened to her son.

She rushed there immediately.

“When I arrived, I found people saying that a child had been swept away by floodwaters, and that the body had been recovered and placed to the side. To my disbelief, it was my 8-year-old boy,” she says.

Beside her, loud wailing could be heard from a child in school uniform—his sister—who was overwhelmed with grief. She couldn’t believe her little brother was gone.

George Kimani, a first responder, says it was raining heavily at the time. As he was passing through that stretch of road, he came across school children in distress. They told him one of their friends had drowned.

The grieving mother of three expressed her sorrow and frustration, wishing the school had not let the children leave in such dangerous weather conditions.

“The school had my contact information. They could have called me and asked me to pick up my son instead of letting him walk through the heavy rain,” she says.

This tragic incident comes less than a year after another similar case.

On September 3 2024, 52-year-old Sammy Kipkemei Tarus drowned after losing control of his motorcycle near the Eveready roundabout, amid heavy rainfall.