Ndaba Nkomo
Correspondent
A Kenyan national, Erick Gichuki, shocked Bontleng residents when he invaded his former girlfriend, Carol Nyambura Tutu’s residence with petrol and set her and her room ablaze at around 1 am recently. Both are recuperating at Princess Marina Hospital, Gaborone.
The victim suffered serious body burns from the waist downwards. Gichuki is under police guard.
All the furniture, two beds, a refrigerator, chest of drawers, chairs, television set and a home theatre system, and identity documents, among other things, were destroyed in the inferno. One of the victim’s roommates, who identified himself as Kabo Sam, says he was woken up by shouts.
“I heard her screaming for help. At first I thought it was one of their usual fights and I ignored for a while until I saw flames leaping from the door,” he says.
According to other eyewitnesses, Gichuki also caught fire and dashed off the plot.
He was advised to roll in the sand to stop the flames after which he fled in fear of what he had done. Tutu miraculously evacuated the room and had the fire extinguished. Police were called in and the suspect later apprehended.
“He slipped and fell and that’s how he caught fire. He tried to lock me in the house and kill me. He wanted me dead, burnt to death for not accepting him.
This is painful and I have never been this hurt and in so much pain in my entire life,” she said. She also notes that her roommate, Rose, another Kenyan national who works for a salon at Tswana House, stole her money, about P9,000, and flew to Nairobi.
When asked about the incident, Gichuki said Tutu is his girlfriend and he did not mean to kill her but he wanted to commit suicide in her room. “I bought petrol for P50 from a filling station. I was angry and wanted to kill myself in her room because she had called me a homosexual,” he said.
Pastor Paul Oboseng Ketlhoiwe, who is in charge of the house where the incident occurred, said he has been trying to conduct some counselling for the couple who have been having problems for some time. He said problems started when Gichuki was asked to move out of the house since Tutu had a roommate. “At some point he threatened to kill her but I advised him that such statements were illegal in Botswana and he apologised.”
The Bontleng Police Station Commander was not available at the time of going to press.
