A family in Kapenguria town, West Pokot County, is mourning the death of an elderly man who reportedly drowned in a flooded drainage trench on Thursday, May 23 evening.
The lifeless body of the Joseph Benta Lorema — who hails from Psigirio village — was found lying inside the trench near Makutano Primary School on Friday, May 24 morning, following a night of heavy downpour in the area.
The family says the 75-year-old man had gone to Makutano township to open a bank account so that he can start receiving monthly stipend from the government’s cash transfer programme for the elderly.
Lorema was taken to Post Bank branch at Makutano township by his second-born son, John Chumba Lorema, on a motorbike.
After a long wait, Lorema managed to secure the application and in the afternoon, the former prison warder started his journey back home.
But while still in Makutano town, he asked his son to take him to his niece who sells motorbike spare parts near Makutano Primary School.
A bottle of alcohol
According to Chumba, his father told him to go and collect other elders who had remained at home to apply for the elder’s fund. He assured him that he was going to run some errands and would later trek back home.
“My father takes some little liquor, and he was offered KSh80 where he went and bought some liquor, took it and carried a little in a bottle. He might have taken the molasses liquor which is dangerous,” he said.
Neighbours say that Lorema went to his normal resting place – under a grevillea tree opposite Makutano Primary School where he continued drinking his alcohol.
Flooded trench
It is reported that few minutes later while still under the tree, heavy rains started and after some time, his alcohol bottle dropped in the flooded trench and while he tried to pick it up, the old man collapsed inside it.
It is inside this trench that bodaboda riders and mechanics who witnessed the incident say he was moved violently by flooding waters, got injured and succumbed.
“The old man always collects scrap metals and sells them. He is always taking his liquor under that tree. He had his bag full of scrap metals together with his cap which are still under the tree,” says Peter Wafula, a bodaboda rider.
His brother, Benjamin Lorema, says he thought the deceased had gone that evening.
