How Mombasa motorists abandoned officer to die

Police Constable Julius Marwa, a traffic officer who died after he was run over by a motorist, at the busy Buxton junction on Mombasa Island frantically pleaded with motorists to rush him to hospital as he lay on the tarmac, fighting for his life, eye-witnesses now say.

Thrice, Marwa, writhing in anguish, pleaded with three motorists to rush him to the hospital, but his distress calls went unheeded.

His loud cries for help would be his last words before he finally went silent’ dead as a dodo.

 The officer had been run over by Mohammed Juma Abdi moments earlier, following a moment of road rage during a routine traffic check up.

 Abdi was yesterday taken to court before the Mombasa Law Courts and released on a bond of Sh500,000 pending the completion of investigations into the murder charges.

 Marwa’s colleague who witnessed the incident has for the first time spoken about the chilling incident on the evening of February 27.

Bad blood

The officer who spoke on condition of anonymity revealed that Marwa’s life would have been saved if it were not for the bad blood between traffic police officers and members of the public, especially motorists.

 “I was confused, l tried to run after the car. I saw my colleague being dragged on the tarmac road, l tried to ask other motorists to block the vehicle for me but no one was willing to assist even after the deceased was thrown out of the moving vehicle. l stopped so many vehicles that l even lost count. l pleaded with each of the motorists to assist us move him (Marwa) to a nearby hospital but no one was willing to help,” he said.

The officer who broke down as he narrated the ordeal, stated that the deceased, in a final plea, asked a tuk tuk driver to drive him to the hospital as he feared he would die any moment.

 “As he lay on the ground in a lot of pain, he would gesticulate to motorists driving by, pleading with them to stop and rush him to hospital but nobody heeded his pleas. Instead, people just stood by, busy taking photos and videos as my colleague lay down. He breathed his last as l begged a motorist to drive him to hospital. l didn’t know the hate towards us is this bad, I am sad, I have been asking myself a lot of questions; are this the same Kenyans who expect us police officers to come to their rescue while in distress?” he posed.

Marwa’s body was yesterday removed from the Jocham hospital morgue to Coast General Hospital Mortuary where it was set to undergo postmortem.

 Marwa’s widow and his (deceased) brothers were present during the exercise.

 In equal measure as he was loathed by motorists, his colleagues described him as a hard working family man, who ran a school in his home county of Migori County.

 He also operated a bar and restaurant within Mombasa.

Career policemen

 The slain cop was employed in 1997 after he graduated from Kiganjo Police Training College. He was first posted in Wajir before being transferred to Mombasa where he has worked for the last 13 years.

 “With the type of work we do you need to be firm, he was a tough man but in terms of work he was hard working but did not entertain any kind of nonsense,” said yet another officer who closely worked with him.

 Most of his workmates, however, remained tight-lipped on accusations of harassment, intimidation and extortion of bribes from motorists on the part of the deceased.

 “He was a good man, l have seen the videos being circulated all over social media but l don’t have a comment on the same all l know is that he was temperamental and he didn’t like provocation,” said yet another officer.

 In a WhatsApp group created to offset Marwa’s burial expenses, police officers based in Mombasa had managed to raise over Sh200,000 in a span of two days.

He will be buried on March 10 at his home in Migori county.