A police officer, Wesley Kipkurui, 25, attached to Anti-Stock Theft Unit (ASTU) left his home on Tuesday, December 3, with the hopes that after the last lap of his assignment, he would return to tie the knot with the love of his life but that would never be the case.
According to a report by The Standard, the officer, who hails from Uasin Gishu County, was hoping to receive leave days in order to marry his fiancée Abigael Jelimo on January 2, 2020.
Kipkurui, however, met his gruesome death on Friday, December 6, when Al-Shabaab Militants ambushed the bus he was traveling in and killed seven other officers.
A total of 11 people were killed aboard a Mandera-bound bus during the attack that occurred between Kutulo and Wargadud areas of Wajir County.
Speaking to the press, Jelimo disclosed that she was left heartbroken by the loss considering that the two had been close friends for seven years.
"We talked on the phone several times as he (Kipkurui) travelled by bus to Mandera, but some time in the evening his phone went off and I became worried," the paper quoted Jelimo.
She further recounted that she continued attempting to reach her fiancé but his phone remained off until she received the news of his demise through online news.
“I lack words to express what I feel right now. I still believe he is just missing and will show up and we proceed with our plans,” she continued.
Kipkurui’s mother, Sarah Birgen, recalled the time she had spent with her son three days before the attack happened.
“We parted on Tuesday (December 3) and I wished him a safe journey back to Wajir. Since then, I never called him. But on Saturday, I asked one of his brothers to call to find out whether he arrived safely, but I was told his phone was off,” she stated.
A survivor from the tragedy recounted the ordeal to by Daily Nation in which non-muslim travellers were terrorised and killed one by one, following a similar script of previous bus attacks by the Al-Shabaab militants that were first sparked in 2014 by what the terror group explained to be police raids on Mosques in Mombasa.
The duo's friendship kicked off while they were still in high school.
