The Accident
Former Kamukunji MP George Nthenge was involved in an accident in Machakos that wiped out his wife of 43 years and nine of their children.
On the fateful day in 1978, the family of 12 was travelling to Nairobi in their spacious Peugeot 504 station wagon, along with a relative.
When Nthenge, who was driving, reached Athi River Bridge on the Nairobi-Mombasa highway, he decided to overtake a lorry whose driver had signaled him to pass.
He narrated that as if out of nowhere, he saw another lorry hurtling in his direction with the lights on full beam.
The politician swerved to the right to try and avoid the oncoming sand-packed lorry but unfortunately, the other driver thought the same thing.
The two vehicles rammed into each other on a ditch beside the road, an impact that left his car almost flattened to the ground, and the lorry’s entire front axle knocked out.
"In a split second, we went bang into the dark, ugly nose of the hulky trailer and our world imploded on that early morning," he told journalists during an interview with The Standard.
In a split second, his four daughters and four sons were killed by the impact and his wife succumbed as rescuers tried to get her out of the wreckage.
One of his daughters was evacuated from the scene but also succumbed to injuries.
Miraculously, his son escaped with only a broken arm.
The whole time, Nthenge had lost his consciousness and when he came to, he was being driven to a hospital.
"I tried to shout demanding to be told what had become of the rest of my family, but no word came out. I just stared blankly as my son, Antony said softly: ‘Everybody is dead, including mummy’," he recalled.
The former MP’s niece was confined to a wheelchair but she, too, died six years later from complications resulting from the accident.
Since his injuries could not allow the politician to leave the hospital, he had to give permission to relatives to bury his late family members in his absence, however painful that was for him.
In a previous interview with Nation, Nthenge said he wished to be buried two feet below his wife whose life was claimed by an accident some 41 years ago.
Nthenge survived the 1978 accident but his wife and 10 children lost their lives.
“If all goes according to plan, my beloved second wife, Scholastica, will be buried two feet above me. I love them that much,” Nthenge told the daily
Political life
He joined then Kenya African Union (KAU), the precursor of Kanu in 1951. KAU was later disbanded by the colonial powers at the onset of the Mau Mau uprising in 1952.
Nthenge began his curio business, in 1950, a year after he arrived in Nairobi after completing his secondary school studies at St Mary’s School, Tabora, Tanzania. The late Mwalimu Julius Kambarage Nyerere, Tanzania’s founder president, was among his teachers.
He attended Mang’u High School up to Form Three where his classmates included President Mwai Kibaki and the late Tom Mboya.
He once described Kibaki as "a big dog without teeth..when they were agitating for multiparty democracy which he became a true hero for the change from one party system to multiparty democracy.. Talking with ease because they schooled together Here is the man who as a Form two boy at Mang’u High School in 1948 shielded the future President Mwai Kibaki and other “monos” from bullying and physical beating in vogue at the time by asking
his classmates what they stood to gain apart from evanescent fun.
“I wonder if Kibaki still remembers that,” he says with a laugh that exposes a toothless gum.
Non other than Tanzania’s founding President Mwalimu Julius Nyerere was at one time his class teacher. He remembers Nyerere as a humble, reasonable and loved teacher.
“He taught me biology and he was good," reminisces Nthenge fondly.
He reads my curiosity right and explains that he had left Mang’u at the time for a stint in then Tanganyika.
“It so happened that a teacher who was not comfortable with my genius in mathematics hated my critical mind and discontinued me when the headmaster was on leave in Ireland. I took up the matter with the Catholic Education Secretariat who instructed the priest in charge of Machakos to find me an alternative Catholic school outside Kenya.
That is how I landed at St Mary’s High School, Tabora in 1949. Nyerere was a staff teacher at the school.
Flash back to Mang’u. Among his classmates was Tom Mboya, a future political buddy whom he describes as average in class and a good speaker but not an orator.
“Mboya did not proceed to Senior Secondary. He left at Form two to go into the job market and we only met later in politics. I am the one who exhorted President Jomo Kenyatta during the Lancaster House Conference in 1962 to appoint Mboya a cabinet minister by dint of the work he had done for KANU and the country.
Call him a maverick if you will, but Nthenge’s is a profile of surprises even as he tiptoes into the dusk of his days.
“I am contemplating forming a political party for members aged 70 and above who have exhibited honesty in their lives and can be effective on the war against corruption,” says the man who was among the founders of the Forum for the Restoration of Democracy (FORD).
“When I die, my body will be lowered four feet deep and not the standard six. That is not my choice. Fate chose it for me when death snatched my first wife Emelda 36 years ago. I have decided to rest directly above her when my time comes.
“If all goes according to plan, my beloved second wife Scholarstica will be buried two feet above me. I love them that much."
This grave chat is coincidentally atop a conglomerate of graves that from a casual look could pass for large slabs on a concrete floor. It is here under a simple mausoleum like structure popularly known as “chapel” that Nthenge’s first wife and nine children are interred.
“Emelda and our seven children tragically expired on the spot on November 9, 1978 in what remains to this day, Kenya’s worst single family accident. Our ninth child succumbed three days later to her
injuries. She too is buried here.
George Nthenge (carrying child) with wife Damaris and their children. Photo/Courtesy
"I married Emelda Damaris Mukui in 1953. Our wedding was widely publicised by the East African Standard."
Nthenge’s voice drops to a lower octave as he launches forth on the events preceding the horrific accident:
“It was a Thursday, shortly after Emelda and I returned from a holiday in Europe. As usual, we had set off to commute to Nairobi to business and to drop the children at school.
“Apart from my nine children, my niece was also in the vehicle, a Peugeot 504 Station Wagon KRV 724. I was on the wheel. All was well until we reached Small World Country Club on Mombasa Road.
"It was slightly foggy. A lorry driving in front gave me the green light to overtake just as another lorry ferrying limestone to Athi River’s Blue Triangle Cement factory appeared out of the blues.
"The resultant collision was huge. I was rushed to Kenyatta National Hospital unconscious with three broken ribs.
"Only my son, Tony Mathembe, then in Form four at Parklands secondary school in Nairobi who escaped with a broken hand retained consciousness.
Tony went on to qualify as an engineer and, like his father, is an astute businessman. He was present during the burial of his mother and seven siblings, two days after the tragedy.
“My father talked to me from his hospital bed soon after he regained consciousness with unambiguous instructions that the dead be buried without undue delay because waiting for him would not bring
them back. They were laid to rest on Saturday, November 11, 1978. A sister who died three days later was also buried in my father’s absence.
"Our cousin who also survived the accident died a year later and was buried in her father’s home,” Tony told this reporter.
Nthenge says he organised a party to celebrate the lives of his loved ones.
“It was at that party where I was prevailed upon to re-marry after I had resolved to spend the rest of my life taking care of my three remaining children.
"Apart from Tony, a daughter, Galla Clementine Kanini, then in boarding school at Mumbuni Girls School had survived alongside my eldest son, Otto Edward Musembi who was studying in the United States of America. I found consolation in the fact that I was luckier than some close friends who had fewer children or none at all.
“Besides my father who was categorical that I re-marry, my father in law came to the party with a heifer to start me off on dowry for a new wife. I was 52 and the woman to fit into my life had to be mature.
George Nthenge with his father Paul Nguli (left), wife Emelda and mother Elizabeth on their wedding day. Photo/Courtesy
“Slightly over a year later in December 1979, I wedded 33 year old Scholarstica Damaris Kavata, a counselling psychologist who bore me four sons, all of them university graduates and responsible citizens today. Our youngest son is 27 and about to complete his PhD. studies.
Nthenge has been into the curio business virtually his entire adult life and sill runs a curio shop at the City Park in Nairobi.
“I started by hawking curios outside The Stanley Hotel in December 1950 after about a year of formal employment in eight different organisations.
"I was a rich man hardly five years later exporting curios to Europe. I had started my own handicraft factory at kithaayoni in Machakos town in 1953, employing 80 wood carvers.
Nthenge was elected a member of LEGCO representing Machakos that included the current Makueni County in 1960 together with Ambassador Henry Muli.
"A reluctant politician, he did not offer himself for election in 1963 and only returned to parliament after the multiparty 1992 elections as MP for Kamukunji constituency on a FORD ticket, retiring from active politics in 1997.
The third of nine children born to a pioneer Christian Mzee Paul Nguli and his wife, Elizabeth Kavuu, Nthenge went to Mumbuni elementary school near Machakos before he proceeded to Kabaa where his classmates included former prominent banker and politician Peter Otieno Nyakiamo. His parents named him Wilson after a white Christian they admired.
“I was later baptized George Gregory and only acquired the name Nthenge on prompting from my grandfather. I chose Nthenge which in Kikamba means he-goat because I admired the naughty bearded creatures. I went to Mang’u as George Gregory Wilson Nthenge Nguli.
Today the Man George rested to join his family and ancestors...may he shine on his way
Former Kamukunji MP George Nthenge was involved in an accident in Machakos that wiped out his wife of 43 years and nine of their children.
On the fateful day in 1978, the family of 12 was travelling to Nairobi in their spacious Peugeot 504 station wagon, along with a relative.
When Nthenge, who was driving, reached Athi River Bridge on the Nairobi-Mombasa highway, he decided to overtake a lorry whose driver had signaled him to pass.
He narrated that as if out of nowhere, he saw another lorry hurtling in his direction with the lights on full beam.
The politician swerved to the right to try and avoid the oncoming sand-packed lorry but unfortunately, the other driver thought the same thing.
The two vehicles rammed into each other on a ditch beside the road, an impact that left his car almost flattened to the ground, and the lorry’s entire front axle knocked out.
"In a split second, we went bang into the dark, ugly nose of the hulky trailer and our world imploded on that early morning," he told journalists during an interview with The Standard.
In a split second, his four daughters and four sons were killed by the impact and his wife succumbed as rescuers tried to get her out of the wreckage.
One of his daughters was evacuated from the scene but also succumbed to injuries.
Miraculously, his son escaped with only a broken arm.
The whole time, Nthenge had lost his consciousness and when he came to, he was being driven to a hospital.
"I tried to shout demanding to be told what had become of the rest of my family, but no word came out. I just stared blankly as my son, Antony said softly: ‘Everybody is dead, including mummy’," he recalled.
The former MP’s niece was confined to a wheelchair but she, too, died six years later from complications resulting from the accident.
Since his injuries could not allow the politician to leave the hospital, he had to give permission to relatives to bury his late family members in his absence, however painful that was for him.
In a previous interview with Nation, Nthenge said he wished to be buried two feet below his wife whose life was claimed by an accident some 41 years ago.
Nthenge survived the 1978 accident but his wife and 10 children lost their lives.
“If all goes according to plan, my beloved second wife, Scholastica, will be buried two feet above me. I love them that much,” Nthenge told the daily
Political life
He joined then Kenya African Union (KAU), the precursor of Kanu in 1951. KAU was later disbanded by the colonial powers at the onset of the Mau Mau uprising in 1952.
Nthenge began his curio business, in 1950, a year after he arrived in Nairobi after completing his secondary school studies at St Mary’s School, Tabora, Tanzania. The late Mwalimu Julius Kambarage Nyerere, Tanzania’s founder president, was among his teachers.
He attended Mang’u High School up to Form Three where his classmates included President Mwai Kibaki and the late Tom Mboya.
He once described Kibaki as "a big dog without teeth..when they were agitating for multiparty democracy which he became a true hero for the change from one party system to multiparty democracy.. Talking with ease because they schooled together Here is the man who as a Form two boy at Mang’u High School in 1948 shielded the future President Mwai Kibaki and other “monos” from bullying and physical beating in vogue at the time by asking
his classmates what they stood to gain apart from evanescent fun.
“I wonder if Kibaki still remembers that,” he says with a laugh that exposes a toothless gum.
Non other than Tanzania’s founding President Mwalimu Julius Nyerere was at one time his class teacher. He remembers Nyerere as a humble, reasonable and loved teacher.
“He taught me biology and he was good," reminisces Nthenge fondly.
He reads my curiosity right and explains that he had left Mang’u at the time for a stint in then Tanganyika.
“It so happened that a teacher who was not comfortable with my genius in mathematics hated my critical mind and discontinued me when the headmaster was on leave in Ireland. I took up the matter with the Catholic Education Secretariat who instructed the priest in charge of Machakos to find me an alternative Catholic school outside Kenya.
That is how I landed at St Mary’s High School, Tabora in 1949. Nyerere was a staff teacher at the school.
Flash back to Mang’u. Among his classmates was Tom Mboya, a future political buddy whom he describes as average in class and a good speaker but not an orator.
“Mboya did not proceed to Senior Secondary. He left at Form two to go into the job market and we only met later in politics. I am the one who exhorted President Jomo Kenyatta during the Lancaster House Conference in 1962 to appoint Mboya a cabinet minister by dint of the work he had done for KANU and the country.
Call him a maverick if you will, but Nthenge’s is a profile of surprises even as he tiptoes into the dusk of his days.
“I am contemplating forming a political party for members aged 70 and above who have exhibited honesty in their lives and can be effective on the war against corruption,” says the man who was among the founders of the Forum for the Restoration of Democracy (FORD).
“When I die, my body will be lowered four feet deep and not the standard six. That is not my choice. Fate chose it for me when death snatched my first wife Emelda 36 years ago. I have decided to rest directly above her when my time comes.
“If all goes according to plan, my beloved second wife Scholarstica will be buried two feet above me. I love them that much."
This grave chat is coincidentally atop a conglomerate of graves that from a casual look could pass for large slabs on a concrete floor. It is here under a simple mausoleum like structure popularly known as “chapel” that Nthenge’s first wife and nine children are interred.
“Emelda and our seven children tragically expired on the spot on November 9, 1978 in what remains to this day, Kenya’s worst single family accident. Our ninth child succumbed three days later to her
injuries. She too is buried here.
George Nthenge (carrying child) with wife Damaris and their children. Photo/Courtesy
"I married Emelda Damaris Mukui in 1953. Our wedding was widely publicised by the East African Standard."
Nthenge’s voice drops to a lower octave as he launches forth on the events preceding the horrific accident:
“It was a Thursday, shortly after Emelda and I returned from a holiday in Europe. As usual, we had set off to commute to Nairobi to business and to drop the children at school.
“Apart from my nine children, my niece was also in the vehicle, a Peugeot 504 Station Wagon KRV 724. I was on the wheel. All was well until we reached Small World Country Club on Mombasa Road.
"It was slightly foggy. A lorry driving in front gave me the green light to overtake just as another lorry ferrying limestone to Athi River’s Blue Triangle Cement factory appeared out of the blues.
"The resultant collision was huge. I was rushed to Kenyatta National Hospital unconscious with three broken ribs.
"Only my son, Tony Mathembe, then in Form four at Parklands secondary school in Nairobi who escaped with a broken hand retained consciousness.
Tony went on to qualify as an engineer and, like his father, is an astute businessman. He was present during the burial of his mother and seven siblings, two days after the tragedy.
“My father talked to me from his hospital bed soon after he regained consciousness with unambiguous instructions that the dead be buried without undue delay because waiting for him would not bring
them back. They were laid to rest on Saturday, November 11, 1978. A sister who died three days later was also buried in my father’s absence.
"Our cousin who also survived the accident died a year later and was buried in her father’s home,” Tony told this reporter.
Nthenge says he organised a party to celebrate the lives of his loved ones.
“It was at that party where I was prevailed upon to re-marry after I had resolved to spend the rest of my life taking care of my three remaining children.
"Apart from Tony, a daughter, Galla Clementine Kanini, then in boarding school at Mumbuni Girls School had survived alongside my eldest son, Otto Edward Musembi who was studying in the United States of America. I found consolation in the fact that I was luckier than some close friends who had fewer children or none at all.
“Besides my father who was categorical that I re-marry, my father in law came to the party with a heifer to start me off on dowry for a new wife. I was 52 and the woman to fit into my life had to be mature.
George Nthenge with his father Paul Nguli (left), wife Emelda and mother Elizabeth on their wedding day. Photo/Courtesy
“Slightly over a year later in December 1979, I wedded 33 year old Scholarstica Damaris Kavata, a counselling psychologist who bore me four sons, all of them university graduates and responsible citizens today. Our youngest son is 27 and about to complete his PhD. studies.
Nthenge has been into the curio business virtually his entire adult life and sill runs a curio shop at the City Park in Nairobi.
“I started by hawking curios outside The Stanley Hotel in December 1950 after about a year of formal employment in eight different organisations.
"I was a rich man hardly five years later exporting curios to Europe. I had started my own handicraft factory at kithaayoni in Machakos town in 1953, employing 80 wood carvers.
Nthenge was elected a member of LEGCO representing Machakos that included the current Makueni County in 1960 together with Ambassador Henry Muli.
"A reluctant politician, he did not offer himself for election in 1963 and only returned to parliament after the multiparty 1992 elections as MP for Kamukunji constituency on a FORD ticket, retiring from active politics in 1997.
The third of nine children born to a pioneer Christian Mzee Paul Nguli and his wife, Elizabeth Kavuu, Nthenge went to Mumbuni elementary school near Machakos before he proceeded to Kabaa where his classmates included former prominent banker and politician Peter Otieno Nyakiamo. His parents named him Wilson after a white Christian they admired.
“I was later baptized George Gregory and only acquired the name Nthenge on prompting from my grandfather. I chose Nthenge which in Kikamba means he-goat because I admired the naughty bearded creatures. I went to Mang’u as George Gregory Wilson Nthenge Nguli.
Today the Man George rested to join his family and ancestors...may he shine on his way
