One Cyrus Maina spent 10
years in primary school and the furthest he went was Standard Three. Maina
repeated class one six times. Those are six years. Another three were spent
repeating class two before calling it quits in class three in first term in
2001.
Maina’s near 10 years in
lower primary began when he was enrolled at Marumi Primary School in Kigumo,
Murang’a County in 1992 and he admits that, “I was a serial repeater and
everybody in this village knows that. People find it interesting and keep
asking me about it.”
While Maina’s parents declined
an interview, his former teacher, Mary Waitherero, who joined Marumi Primary
School in 1994 did not mind talking about it. She recalls that Maina, now 33
years old, was the most notorious case she had ever handled in her teaching
career.
“He spent most of his times
in the bush and tormented kids in classroom. He always did the opposite of what
you asked him to do,” says Waitherero, clarifying that Maina was not a dull
pupil, just wayward.
Michael Mburu, another
former teacher, says he always pulled out Maina from a thicket or atop a tree
where he hid when late or unwilling to learn.
James Chege, a former
classmate who found Maina in class one in 1995, recalls how he almost dropped
out of school after constant bullying from Maina. “He inducted me to school in
the worst way. We shivered whenever he reported to school. I even wanted to be
transferred to a different school,” recalls Chege.
The first-born in a family
of four was nicknamed Ka-pussy because of his knack for sneaking out and
climbing trees. Others called him Stano, and the latest nickname is Joho,
because his beards apparently look like Mombasa Governor Hassan Joho’s.
Maina later turned to
pickpocketing with hilarious asides. He once pinched Sh5,000 from his grandma
who had sold a cow. To figure out where she kept the money, he climbed into the
firewood rack in her kitchen and spent two days monitoring her from above.
“I would climb down to then
go up and sleep there. I saw her hiding the money under the mattress and I took
some” he recalls of the incident in 2005.
From the spoils, Maina
bought friends cheap liquor and when he realised the money was more he had
expected, he dropped Sh1,000 into a pit latrine.
During a bride price
negotiation of a relative in 2014, Maina is said to have pickpocketed Sh20,000
from an in-law before taking to the nearby town where he bought each patron
beer for Sh1, 000 without demanding change, besides dishing out money to strangers.
Feeling rich, he paid a
boda boda rider Sh700 to take him to distance of three kilometres. He was
smoked out having squandered the cash and only had Sh4,000 left.
“I had money, so I decided
to spend it with those without. I wanted to surprise the waitress, friends and
strangers. It is true I told her the waitress to keep change”.
One time, he allegedly
pick-pocketed a village mate Sh10,000 in a pub but he bought his victim cheap
liquor for a whole week.
He has broken his two legs
and right hand in drinking sprees and in May, Maina fell from a macadamia tree
at night.
Agbaya shame
ReplyDeleteHe need to stop drinking
ReplyDelete