A full video capturing the Monday, January 27, 2025, dramatic torching of a Miraa vehicle, which was destined for Nairobi before getting involved in a grisly accident in Kirinyaga, has surfaced online.
The video, shared by TikTok user @seeker, shows the vehicle abandoned on the roadside, still fully loaded with sacks of the stimulant crop, after causing the fatal accident.
This is when a section of residents, chanting loudly, surrounded it before pushing it off the road toward the area where the bodaboda belonging to the deceased rider lay mangled.
According to the footage, more and more residents gathered at the scene, their numbers swelling as their chants grew louder.
Some individuals began throwing objects at the vehicle, and at one point, a resident retrieved a can of petrol, doused the vehicle, and set it ablaze with a match.
Additional videos that surfaced online show residents dispersing after the car caught fire, while oncoming drivers watched the chaotic scene in shock.
The vehicle, which appeared to be relatively new with flashy parts and KD registration plates, was completely destroyed in the inferno.
Car causes accident
The chaos, which traffic police struggled to control due to the angry crowd, started after the Toyota Hilux rammed into a bodaboda rider, killing him instantly.
According to a local TV station, the accident was particularly grisly as the speeding vehicle dragged the rider several meters along the tarmac, leaving behind a bloody scene reminiscent of a movie.
“The driver dragged the rider several meters from the scene,” Peter Macharia said, visibly shaken as he spoke to a local TV station in a video shared on social media.
“It was horrifying to watch. The speed at which these miraa vehicles move is reckless and dangerous. This highway has become a death trap, and innocent lives are paying the price.”
The accident occurred around 3 pm in the Kianjiru area of Kirinyaga County, along the busy Embu-Nairobi highway.
The driver of the ill-fated Hilux and his conductor narrowly escaped death after the enraged residents redirected their anger toward the vehicle instead of them.
The accident and subsequent torching of the vehicle caused a two-hour paralysis of transport along the highway before police managed to control the situation.
Recurring incidents
Fatal accidents involving miraa vehicles and bodaboda riders or pedestrians are not uncommon along the highway, which serves as their primary route.
Just a month earlier, on December 17, 2024, another miraa vehicle killed a bodaboda rider and his pillion passenger near the Difathas area in the same county.
In that incident, the two victims died on the spot in a similarly horrific manner after being rammed head-on by a speeding miraa vehicle.
The driver fled the scene, leaving the lifeless bodies on the road as residents lamented the increasing number of accidents caused by reckless miraa drivers.
