Nairobi News

His dream to one day solve the problem of substandard household commodities through technology was cut short by one lethal knife stab that punctured his right lung early in the wee hours of February 20.

This is the heart-wrenching story of 24-year-old Bovince Ndemo, who had just finished his studies in applied physics, electronics and instrumentation at TUM. As he walked back to his friend’s home in Mirema last Sunday night, death was stalking him.

He had come from his aunt’s place at Olympic Estate, Kibra, where he had lunch with his younger brother Calvince Ndemo, 20, and his cousins. He then bid them goodbye, saying he was going to fix his laptop and then head back to Mirema. This was to be his last meal with his family.

On the evening of February 12, he visited his aunt, Beatrice Anyango, at her home, where he met his cousins as well as his younger brother, who is studying for a Bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering at the University of Nairobi.

His career choice, Calvince said, was greatly influenced by his elder brother, who was also his best friend. He looked up to him.

“We left the house together on that fateful Sunday afternoon and he told me he wanted to first look for a good shop to fix his laptop, which he used for online academic writing, then head to Mirema. I didn’t know this would be the last time I would be seeing him,” an emotional Calvince said.

“I left them at home as I went with the house help to buy condiments at Toi market so that they could eat before he left. He called me around 5pm and told me he had found a good dealer, but since I was at a prayer meeting, I asked him to call me later,” Ms Anyango said.

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Now she wishes she would have spoken to her nephew a little bit more, listened to what would turn out to be his last words to her a little more keenly.

Ms Anyango recalled the wonderful week the young people spent at her house.

“We had a family phone call on Tuesday (February 14) where even the children’s grandparents and Bovince’s mother, plus my other sister, were added to the call and we spoke for hours. We were so happy. A week later, we see nothing but doom,” she said.

In that call, Bovince, who had been nicknamed Modern Developer, had promised to buy his grandfather a big house in Nairobi, where he and his brother Calvince, would take care of his every need.

The amused old man had laughed his heart out, expressing his love for his grandchildren. The young men also told their mother that they appreciated how much she had done for them and soon, they would wipe away her tears.

Their mother, living in Marani village, Kisii, has single-handedly raised them alongside their three younger siblings, a task that has proven very tough for the qualified teacher who has never held a permanent job since she graduated from college.

Come Sunday, February 19, Bovince was walking back home with his friend Collins at 11pm.

A motorcycle with a rider and a pillion passenger stopped right behind them. Before they could register anything, Collins’ phone was snatched by one of the two men who accosted them. He was left lying in a ditch with a bleeding eye and nose.

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Not waiting to suffer the same fate as his friend, Bovince bolted and managed to evade the two gangsters, or so he thought. Figuring that he had put a good distance between himself and the attackers, he slowed down, only to feel a sharp pain shoot through his body. One of the criminals had given chase, and when he slowed down, had stabbed him in the back.

He did not steal anything from Bovince; his aim was to strike a fatal blow. The two criminals ran back to their motorcycle and vanished in the darkness.

When Collins caught up with his friend, Bovince told him that he had been stabbed. Only then did he see blood trickling from his chest before Bovince collapsed in his arms.

Collins shouted for help, but the motorcycle riders in the area just stared at the two hapless young men. None came to their rescue despite pleas from Collins.

A taxi driver passing through the area realised something was wrong and stopped to help. Together with Collins, he rushed Bovince to the nearby Neema Uhai Hospital.

At 1:39am, Ms Anyango was fast asleep, but when her son woke her up and told her to call back Bovince’s phone, her heart sank. A sense of foreboding hit her.

“Bovince’s friend told me to rush to Neema Uhai Hospital, saying Bovince had been stabbed and was in a critical condition,” she said.

She called her relatives and together, they rushed to the hospital, but found their loved one, having gone into shock, had been moved to Mama Lucy Kibaki Hospital because it has ICU equipment.

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“The nurses who attended to him (at Neema Uhai) told us that he was still talking when he got to the hospital and even told them how he felt and which part hurt the most,” Ms Anyango said.

Unfortunately, he never made it to the hospital. He went into massive shock and after 12 minutes of attempting resuscitation, the doctors pronounced him dead. The time was 2:39am.

“This young man was the hope of his family. He was always jovial and always concerned with people’s welfare. At a young age, he solved a complex family issue when his uncles fought for ancestral land. He guided the mediation and they all stopped fighting. He was a visionary. I cannot believe he is gone,” Ms Anyango said.

Bovince was to graduate in July, having cleared his studies last November.

His family members, alongside police officers from Kasarani, were on Tuesday evening patiently waiting for the post-mortem report at the Kenyatta University Funeral Home.

Kasarani Deputy Sub County Police Commander Purity Wahome confirmed police had received the report and were currently investigating the case.

“It is a very unfortunate incident and our officers, led by the sub-county criminal investigations officer are investigating the matter and will bring the criminals to book,” she said.

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