Ruth Nyambura Mbagara, the mother of the 19-year-old boy seen in a viral video assaulting a traffic police officer, has apologized for her son’s actions while also defending him.
She explained that the scuffle began as her son, Ian Njoroge, was rushing home to return her car and take his siblings to church, a responsibility he routinely fulfills as the first-born son.
Ms. Mbagara admitted that Njoroge made an illegal U-turn but claimed the officer demanded a Ksh.10,000 bribe, which her son, a university student, could not afford.
Njoroge offered to try raising Ksh.5,000 through his friends, but the officer rejected this, further agitating Njoroge and leading to the physical confrontation that was captured on camera.
“I was surprised because I have brought my son in a Christian way. He is a boy who has gone to good schools, has grown with manners, is God-fearing, obedient, very polite at home…I have never seen him agitated. Something must have happened to that boy,” Ms. Mbagara told The Standard.
“I asked him why, he told me he wanted to bring the car back home before the time for going to church, and on his way he met the policeman. It’s true he made a U-turn, the policeman said he wanted Ksh.10,000, and he told him he couldn’t raise that because he’s a student and that was his mother’s car. He told him he could raise Ksh.5,000, but the policeman refused.”
Ms. Mbagara stated that she only became aware of the incident when she returned home that evening to find police cars at her gate. Upon entering the house, she discovered police officers physically manhandling her son.
While Ms. Mbagara acknowledged that her son was wrong to assault the officer, she refuted some media reports about Njoroge.
“I was heartbroken when I came home from a business trip that night and all I saw was Flying Squad cars outside my gate. In shock, I went inside and found policemen folding my boy down and when I asked why, they showed me a video and told me your boy is a murderer and a robber, that he wanted to kill that man…that the man was in the ICU because of what he (Ian) did,” she recalled.
“I’m speaking as a mother who has been hurting because of seeing how the boy has trended in a negative way. I want to apologise, first of all, and say what he did was not right; he was not supposed to beat that man, I already told him that was wrong.”
