Two teenagers are nursing broken limbs at the Thika level Five Hospital after they were run over by Del Monte company ltd security guards van on suspicion of stealing pineapples.
The duo claims the guard’s van accosted and run over them as they rode on their motorcycles while heading home to Kihiu Mwiri village in Gatanga, Murang’a County from the multinational fruit juice processing farm after fetching fodder for their cattle.
Brian Ingusu, 17, and his cousin David Lucheri, 19, claim that the security guards gave them a chase suspecting them of being on a mission to steal the fruits from the pineapple farm and knocked them down.
Ingusu suffered a broken right limb, ribs and deep cuts on his face while Lucheri has broken ribs and bruises all over his face, hands and legs.
A sack with six pineapples was recovered at the scene of the accident.
Ingusu’s mother Jacqueline Were told journalists that she was informed of the incident while at home and rushed to Ngati police station within Del Monte farm when she was notified that his son and cousin had been rushed to hospital.
Were wondered why innocent people continue to suffer in the hands of the company and no action was being taken to protect them.
She said the brutality by the company’s security guards has escalated with cases of youths from the village being clobbered and maimed by the guards being on the rise.
She said that the fruit juice firm should take responsibility for the incident and bear the costs of their medication.
“The guards have labeled all the youth in Kihiu Mwiri village pineapple thieves which is unfortunate. Why would they run over people with a vehicle instead of arresting the boys and taking them to the police, ” posed Were.
Wilson Nyoike, a youth from the village said they are worried about the trend of brutality.
They now want the Government to intervene and investigate the cases of brutality meted on innocent youths in the village by the guards.
Ithanga Sub County police commander Patrick Nyagah confirmed the incident saying that it was just treated as a normal accident at Del Monte farm and that further investigations are underway.
Delmonte has over the years been at loggerheads with locals over massive pineapple theft in the farms and trucks ferrying them to the company processing units.
Locals too have been complaining of excessive brutality by the company guards who they claim to injure, maim or kill those suspected to have stolen the pineapple.
By Muoki Charles
