Merrymakers back at Juja dam days after couple’s death
By Oliver Musembi, January 24, 2023Police on Sunday night dispersed several people who were making merry at the killer Titanic Dam in Juja, Kiambu county. It is estimated that more than 50 people have drowned in the dam since 2021.
Juja police commander Phyllis Muthoni said the revellers had parked their vehicles a few metres from the dam which is situated on the Kimbo-Kiganjo road, four kilometres off the Thika superhighway.
Last week, a couple drowned after their vehicle slipped into the dam under unclear circumstances. The couple, said to be lovers, were reported to have spent the evening together having fun inside their car which was parked on the dam’s edge before tragedy struck around 9.30 pm.
Witnesses said the man, who was on the driver’s wheel attempted to reverse the car, but appeared to change his mind and engaged the drive gear before plunging into the dam.
The man was identified by relatives as Tirus Maina, a 39-year-old contractor based in Thika and who lived with his family in Makongeni Estate. Yesterday, police said the woman was yet to be identified.
The police commander told People Daily that her relatives had not yet come forward to claim the body following the incident.
“Her fingerprints have been taken in an effort to trace her identity through the registration of persons department, but so far we have no information on her,” said Muthoni.
The police commander had earlier warned that police will not allow anyone in the dam area after 6 pm. “We will intensify police patrols in the area and ensure people do not stay there after dusk. We have collected many bodies of people who drowned in that dam at night,” she said.
According to Kiambu County fire and rescue employees, many of those removed from the dam drowned as they tried to swim while others were killed elsewhere and bodies dumped there.
“The area was once fenced off by the county government, but we do not know who later removed the fence,” said a diver who did not want to be named.
Residents narrated how merrymakers use the open space around the dam as a recreational area where booze and drugs are consumed with abandon. Last year, two students of a business studies college in Nairobi drowned in the dam while swimming.