Tuesday, March 20, 2012

Hit-and-run motorist ruins girl's life



By Wambui Ndung’u

Just how cruel can some people be?
Like a nightmare, this question has lingered in the minds of Charity Mumbi’s parents since a hit-and-run motorist ruined her life forever.
In a flash, the girl who was bubbling with life and ambition was reduced to a pale shadow of herself. Today, her parents have to sit by her side and nurse her like a baby.
Then a Form Three student at Naromoru Girls High School, Mumbi was full of lofty dreams. She embraced life with all its promise, and saw a future full of glad tidings.
Charity Mumbi is fed at her home. [Photo: George Mulala/Standard]
All that changed one afternoon in February 2008. She grabbed her brother’s bicycle and rode off from their home in Kamakwa, Nyeri, to the nearby Ring Road Estate.
Speeding car
Then, it happened.
A speeding car came from behind and swept her off the bicycle, hurling her onto the fence of the nearby Nyeri Technical Institute. Her head rammed a pole on the fence and she slumped to the ground.
Somehow, as she flew through the air, she managed a muffled scream. The motorist zoomed off without slowing to know the fate of his or her victim.
She was later found lying unconscious.
"The person who saw her was so distracted he did not remember to identify the car," said Mumbi’s mother, Lydiah Nyambura.
The accident of devastating. Her skull had been broken and her jaw fractured so badly the upper and lower jaws were separated. So busy were her parents they never found time to report the matter to the police.
After many trips to hospitals, operations and time away from school she was strong enough to return to school. Unknown to her and doctors, another problem was festering.
The turning point came when she started having seizures that were so strong they rocked her body like a wind does a leaf.
So bad were the seizures that she had to be admitted to the Intensive Care Unit ward for four days. She was treated for Meningitis. By the time she left the ICU she was looking healthy and could speak well. Soon, things worsened.
"One day I went to the hospital to see her and found she was unable to control her bladder. She was unable to speak," said Nyambura.
Days later, she suffered a stroke that left the right side of her body paralysed. She has not been able to talk since. A scan at Kenyatta National Hospital revealed she has a hole in her skull that needs to be sealed.
As her parents struggle to have her treated, it pains them that the motorist who caused all this suffering is walking free.
Thoughts keep flowing through their minds. The motorist could be a dad or a mother with a daughter full of life like theirs once was. Does he or she have a conscience?
If he had stopped and taken her to hospital, may be her head would have suffered less damage from the effects of prolonged bleeding. May be she would be healthy today. May be an insurance company would have taken care of some of the hospital bills. May be…
Defective vehicles
Kenya has one of the highest traffic accident rates in the world. Most of these are blamed on defective vehicles, or careless drivers such as the one who hit Mumbi. Her case illustrates the fate of many hit-and-run victims.
Her parents hope that one day, the motorist will come forward and take responsibility for his actions, or even seek forgiveness. "We pray that one day, he or she will know the identity of the accident victim and realise what happened to her," Nyambura tells The Standard.
The family is struggling to raise more than Sh2 million required for treatment at an Indian hospital.

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