Imagine you are driving on a highway and a motorcyclist hits your vehicle from the rear. You pull over to find out what happened. After noticing that the motorcyclist is only injured slightly, you decide to rush him to hospital for treatment after alerting the police of the incident.

But days later, you learn that the person you rushed to hospital sneaked out of the facility, changed his identity and the details you had recorded in the Police Occurrence Book have also been altered.

As you are still trying to comprehend the developments, another shock hits you with the realisation that the motorcyclist has already moved to court and acquired an order for compensation for injuries suffered during the accident.

That is the fate that has befallen a Nairobi logistics company that now wants investigation of players involved in the determination of an accident case in which it was ordered to compensate a man Sh500,000 for the injuries he sustained in a 2019 accident.

In the civil suit, Excellent Logistics Limited was on December 13, 2022 ordered by S.M. Nyaga, a then Baricho law courts senior resident magistrate in Kirinyaga county to compensate Silas Ngichiri Ndungu for the injuries.

Court documents indicate that Ngichiri who was riding a motorbike number KMEE 871A was reportedly hit by a Mercedes Trailer of number plate KCP 417U that was headed to Nairobi near Tebere area just past Makutano.

According to the documents seen by People Daily, Ngichiri told the court that he was riding his motorbike on the said road near Tebere Cement Factory when Samuel Wanjala Wafula, the driver of the trailer veered off its lane and collided with him causing him grievous injuries.

Ngichiri told the court that Wanjala did not have any regard for other road users as he was driving at an excessive speed, failed to stop, to slow down, to swerve or in any other way so to manage or control the Mercedes trailer to avoid the accident which is contrary to the Highway Code.

“We humbly submit that the driver of the motor vehicle registration KCP 417U veered off his lane and collided into the plaintiff who was on the extreme left hand side of the road causing the incident,” Wangari Mwanzia and Associates representing the complainant, told the court.

According to the documents, a medical examination conducted by a doctor identified as Kiprotich Ngetich revealed that Ngichiri suffered injuries on his left front-subdural hematoma, his left parietal small contusional hematoma and had a depressed fracture of his left temporoparietal bone.

The complainant sought to be awarded special and general damages amounting to Sh801,550 as guided by another case in 2018 where a similar matter saw the plaintiff awarded the said amount.
But Wanjala, in his submission dismissed the claims that the accident was a result of a head on collision and speeding.

He told the court that while driving the trailer along Makutano-Kenol road, a motorcycle registration number KMEE 871A suddenly emerged at high speed and attempted to overtake his vehicle on the side usually used as a pedestrian walk.

“All along I was maintaining a low speed of about 50 KPH while remaining in my lane. While trying to overtake me, the plaintiff lost control of the vehicle and crashed into the rear left tyre of my vehicle thus causing the accident,” Wanjala told the court.

At the centre of controversy is the inconsistencies that followed the treatment of Ngichiri and prosecution of Wanjala.

While Wanjala stopped the vehicle and took the plaintiff to hospital upon realizing that he was injured before reporting the matter to Sagana Police Station, it later turned out that the name and the age of the claimant was altered signaling a possible manipulation of the evidence presented before the court.
According to Wanjala, the complainant was hurriedly evacuated from White Rose Medical Centre where he had rushed him, by unidentified persons, and on his return to the scene of accident, the motorbike under investigation had been driven away by unknown persons.

While both parties conceded that the accident occurred, the court sought to determine which direction Wanjala was driving, a contested issue that was central to helping conclude who was negligent and responsible for the accident.

When the court sought evidence from police, the officer responsible for preparing the abstract said she was not the investigating officer in the matter and was as a result unable to produce sketch drawings of the accident scene or an extract from a police occurrence book.

The court was left in a dilemma of determining whose version, between the plaintiff and the defendant, was true.

In his statement, P.S Kisaka and Co. Advocates representing the defendant said the accident was caused wholly or substantially by the plaintiff as the two vehicles were headed in the same direction.

The defendant’s lawyers further took issue with the cancellation of a name in the police abstract availed by the plaintiff from Samuel Gichiri Ndungu to Silas Gichiri Ndungu alongside the severity of the injury sustained from slight to serious and the cancellations the attorneys argued had not been countersigned.

Interestingly, the defendant is said to have produced an unaltered police abstract issued at the same police station bearing the name of the rider as Samuel Gichiri Ndungu who according to it had suffered a slight injury.

In both police abstracts, according to the defendant’s lawyer, the name of Silas Ngichiri Ndungu, the complainant in the matter does not appear anywhere while in the treatment notes availed before the court, Kenyatta National Hospital which reportedly had admitted the complainant cited that the name of the injured person was a 40-year-old Silas Ndung’u, which is different from the P3 form that bears the name Cyrus Ngichiri Ndungu, 53.

“It is evident that the plaintiff has failed to prove that indeed he was injured in the alleged accident. It is not surprising that whereas the treatment notes and medical reports indicate serious injuries including fractures, there is not even a single receipt to show payment of the hospital bills,” the defendant’s lawyer told the court.

Despite all the discrepancies in names and severity of injuries suffered, the magistrate ruled in favour of the plaintiff arguing that he was more candid and rightful as he is a resident of the area around the accident scene.

“I award the plaintiff Sh500,000 for injuries sustained. I also award specials of Sh1,500 cost and interests of suit to the plaintiff,” ruled Nyaga.

Following the ruling, the Excellent Logistics Limited’s Isuzu FRR motor vehicle REG KCL 940B was auctioned to cater for the damages as per the court judgment.

The company opted to appeal but the proceedings were reportedly not availed to them on time resulting in the closure of the 14-day appeal period.

The company thereby opted to report the matter to Sagana Police station on the alterations of the documents, a matter whose investigations are ongoing.