Victim of infamous ‘haunted house of Ruiru’ speaks out
By Mathew Ndung’u
A palatial home located in Ruiru Kiambu county has become the topic of spooky stories that appear to be taken right out of a Hollywood horror movie script.
The home that stands imposingly at Wataalam village in the expansive Sub-County has left tongues wagging after stories of people being chased away by unseen forces emerged.
Built in 1990, the house situated less than 20 meters from the tarmac along Ruiru-Kiambu road has never been occupied 30 years down the line.
It is built beside Moon Hunters, another house constructed in early 2000 but is fully occupied by tenants.
The three-floored house that represents splendour and wealth lies empty in disrepair owing to the accounts of unseen hostile forces therein.
At the top of the house is an owl-like architectural design.
It is believed that the house, owned by a local businessman, hosts supernatural inhabitants.
The businessman is also believed to be the owner of an apartment along Ronald Ngala street in the Nairobi Central Business District (CBD) that collapsed in 2005.
The ghostly occupants are reported to be hostile to outsiders and even fight back when attacked.
Inside the compound, one is welcomed by outgrown grass, showing that it has been abandoned for a long time.
One year ago, some seven creepy locals summoned courage and stormed the now collapsing and dilapidated building, to establish for themselves the widespread rumors about the ghosts.
Patrick Juma, a resident confesses to have tried to gain access to the building a year ago in the company of the locals.
He claims they managed to open the gate after which they started moving around the compound.
After viewing the compound, they decided to go inside the house and that is when trouble began.
Juma said they managed to move into one of the rooms which they discovered was well furnished with normal house appliances.
“Trouble started when we opened one of the cabinets which was filled with kitchenware. Suddenly, cooking sticks and spoons therein started hitting us. In a movie-like scene, the items hit us so hard we were forced to flee,” he narrated.
They were in for more shock when they discovered that the gate was locked and they could not flee to safety.
Despite shouting for help from outside, residents could not respond to their distress calls as they knew to well the history of the residence.
“When we tried to open the gate; we would be slapped by the unseen persons. We struggled for hours until the ghosts thought they had punished us enough and the gate suddenly flung open. From that time we have never gone near it, leave alone pointing at it,” he said.
Martha Kinuthia, a woman who was born and raised in Ruiru said that the house has a swimming pool on the rooftop that has ever flowing water, but has never been used.
She said that only one person managed to rent a room in the house in early 2000 but after finding his well-arranged items scattered all over, he abandoned it.
Residents revealed that several businesspeople who have attempted to rent the house over they years have been forced to flee after finding their properties thrown out.
“A recent case is that of Indian investors who found all the items they had put inside lying outside yet they had packed them very well inside,” said Kinuthia.
Only one mysterious frail man enters the compound every night and leaves early in the morning. He is said to be the watchman.
The owner, whose wife is reported to be a former doctor at Ruiru District Hospital, has been living within the sub county but he recently vacated for Makuyu village in Murang’a county.
It is the tales from the spooky house that took Kenyans on social media by storm last week.
The mythical happenings from the abandoned house sparked a heated debate on Twitter after Kinyua Wa Muthoni, a twitter user claimed he was familiar with the shocking stories behind the house.
In his narration, Kinyua intimated that while he was working there, he got information that the house’s opening party was filled with persons he described as having been dressed in white.
“The party was a success and the guests left the house in the hands of a watchman. On reporting for duty a week later, the night guard had a night to remember,” he noted.
“At around midnight, he was woken up by some commotion at the front gate and allegedly claimed to have seen vehicles trooping into the compound as he ran in fear of his life,” he added.
Kinyua’s tweet went viral with Kenyans making recommendations of how it could be put into good use.
While some said that the government should convert the mansion to be a jail for the corrupt, others offered to brave the scary tales to spend a night in the house.
“What if this haunted house in Ruiru is an opportunity for Kenya’s film industry to showcase and act a local horror film and take it as an advantage,” MalcolmX254, a twitter user said.
