Instead, a last-minute decision to abandon the tuk tuk he had already boarded would become the difference between life and death.
The Murubara crash along the Mwea-Embu Highway has now claimed 10 lives after two of the injured succumbed while receiving treatment, making it one of the deadliest road accidents in Kirinyaga County this year. The victims included six women and four men, most of them casual labourers heading to rice farms for work.
The tragedy occurred at around 6 a.m. when a parcel truck rammed into the tuk-tuk transporting workers before also hitting pedestrians along the roadside. Several victims died at the scene while others were rushed to hospital, where two later succumbed to their injuries. One survivor remains admitted at Kerugoya County Referral Hospital in critical condition.
For Wachira, who coordinates casual labourers for rice farmers in Mwea, the memory of that morning remains difficult to process.
He says the tuk tuk was carrying workers travelling to transplant rice at the Kenya Agricultural and Livestock Research Organisation (KALRO) fields in Thiba.
“I had already boarded the tuk tuk that was to be driven by Collins Muturi, but my colleagues delayed. My brother and I decided to look for a boda boda instead and reached the farm before them,” Wachira recalled.
He said after arriving at the farm with his brother, Simon Kinyua, they waited for the rest of the group, unaware that disaster had struck.
“After a few minutes, someone told us there had been an accident. I was shocked to learn it involved the same tuk-tuk I had just left,” he said.
His brother said the reality only began to sink in as their phones rang repeatedly.
“Several people called asking whether we were safe. We told them we had taken a motorcycle because the others had delayed,” Simon said.
The brothers rushed to the scene only to find the bodies of people they had shared plans with just hours earlier.
“We had organised the day’s work together. The previous day we were all working in the rice fields at Karima. We live together in rented houses in Kimbimbi because we are all casual labourers, and I usually connect them with people looking for workers,” Wachira said.
Among those who died was 21-year-old tuk tuk driver Collins Muturi.
His cousin, Susan Njeri, described him as a hardworking young man whose death has devastated the family.
Another grieving family is that of David Kilonzo, a lorry driver who lost his wife, Rosaline Wambui. He said he received the heartbreaking news while working in Nairobi.
The tragedy has left Kimbimbi Trading Centre engulfed in mourning. Of the 10 people who died, eight were residents of Kimbimbi village, including two pedestrians who were struck along the roadside after the collision.
Meanwhile, the driver of the parcel truck, Gidraph Ruchiini Mwaniki, will remain in custody at Wang’uru Police Station for 14 days after the Wang’uru Law Court allowed traffic investigators more time to complete investigations.
Mwea-East Sub-County Police Commander Stephen Okal said the suspect will return to court on August 17, where he is expected to face charges related to causing the deaths of the 10 victims.
As families begin burial preparations, residents are renewing calls for urgent intervention at the Murubara section of the highway, which they describe as a longstanding accident blackspot.
They blame the increasing number of crashes on deep potholes, the absence of speed-reducing measures and persistent speeding by motorists.
Julius Kinyua, chairman of Kimbimbi Market Traders, said the community has repeatedly raised concerns over the condition of the road.
“I lost my father at Murubara the other day. Just last month, I was almost hit at the same spot when a lorry swerved to avoid a pothole,” he said.
Margaret Wangari noted that many women who walk to nearby rice farms before sunrise are especially vulnerable because of the heavy traffic and poor road conditions.
Residents have appealed to the Kenya National Highways Authority (KeNHA) to urgently repair the damaged section of the road, install speed bumps and improve road signage.
The bodies of the 10 victims have been moved to Kerugoya County Referral Hospital Mortuary as families prepare for post-mortems and burial arrangements.
For Wachira, however, the tragedy is one he says he will never forget.
A decision made in a matter of minutes spared his life, while friends and colleagues he expected to spend the day working alongside never made it to the rice fields.
