A 21-year-old university student died after falling into an abandoned quarry in Juja, Kiambu County, while fleeing from four knife-wielding men who attacked him and his colleagues during a content-shooting picnic.
Derrick Angwenyi Bundi, a third-year student at the Technical University of Kenya in Nairobi, was with three colleagues at an abandoned quarry in a thicket within Kigwe Farm on Tuesday when the incident occurred.
According to police, the four students had walked from Juja township, where they reside, and arrived at the quarry at about 4.30pm to shoot content using their mobile phones.
At around 6pm, they were allegedly confronted by four men armed with knives who ordered them to surrender their phones.
Three of the students managed to flee, but Bundi fell into an open quarry estimated to be about 40 metres deep as he attempted to escape.
He hit his head on a rock at the bottom and died instantly. He also suffered fractures to both legs.
The attackers fled into the surrounding bushes.
One of the survivors, a JKUAT student, lost her Samsung A16 phone to the attackers, while another one, sustained a sprain to his arm while escaping.
Another student, 21, of Kenyatta University, and a 23-year-old also managed to escape the attackers.
Police officers visited the scene after the incident was reported.
Bundi’s body was retrieved from the quarry in a difficult operation and transferred to General Kago Mortuary in Thika, where it was preserved awaiting a postmortem examination.
Police have launched efforts to trace and arrest the four suspected robbers.
Cases of armed robberies have been on the rise amid police efforts to address the same.
Some of the cases have been solved while others pend under investigations.
Police said teams are pursuing several leads into the gangs behind the incidents both in urban and rural areas.
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