Tuesday, February 6, 2024 - Former BBC journalist, Namukabo Werungah, has recalled an incident in which she and her four colleagues nearly lost their lives after being accosted by rowdy youth armed with crude weapons when they were on an assigement.
Werungah,
who had a stint at NTV, was in the company of her driver, a fixer, and two
other individuals.
Read her long Facebook post narrating the
harrowing experience in the hands of the rowdy youth.
On
Thursday, I travelled out of town (Nairobi) on a work assignment. There were
five of us. Driver, fixer, and two DOPs. I had done some groundwork (including
informing all relevant authorities) and assessed the risks, or so I thought.
We
left Nairobi at 4:30 a.m., and after a few hours, we were almost there, so we
decided to start filming. We got out of the car at a small center and began
filming. There were only two or three people because it was early in the
morning. We exchanged greetings and moved to an isolated location to film.
Within
five minutes, we were surrounded by approximately 20-30 people. Initially, it
was curiosity, but one person appeared agitated and suspicious of us. We
explained why we were there, but he didn't believe us and started making
serious accusations.
Suddenly,
everyone in the crowd believed him, and things quickly became violent. We
offered to leave, but they would not let us. They barricaded the car tyres with
massive stones and threatened to burn it.
At
this point, there were hundreds, angry and armed with various weapons. Only
one of us (the fixer) could understand and speak one of their languages. The
rest of us relied on him to get us out of that situation. I could see he was
struggling. Diplomacy was obviously not working. There were several suggestions
of how to kill us. The options were by burning us, stoning us, or using crude weapons.
This
is a remote location with a decades-long history of conflict, so the lack of
trust is enormous. They didn’t believe a word we said and even after supplying
all the documents they demanded, they still had doubts.
While
pleading for our lives (at this time, we were surrounded by hundreds of people),
we requested that they take us to the police rather than kill us. This
aggravated them even more because it confirmed their suspicions that we were
working with authorities. Our request to be taken to the area chief was met
with the same hostility.
Almost
20 minutes in, I realized that we might not make it out of there alive. I
remembered the young bikers who were killed in Kajiado (NB: We were not in
Kajiado), and I was almost certain we would go the same way. I prayed that they
use one of the crude weapons for a quick death. Not fire please, I told God. I
zoned out and began to reflect on my life, making peace with my God, etc, etc,.
Long
story short, we lived.
I
must mention and thank the Media Council of Kenya, Boniface Mwangi, my colleague
Patrick Gathara, and the local police, who all responded with unimaginable
speed.
Most importantly, God. I surely saw his goodness!
The Kenyan DAILY POST.
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