One Cyrus Maina spent 10 years in primary school and the furthest he went was Standard Three. Maina repeated class one six times. Those are six years. Another three were spent repeating class two before calling it quits in class three in first term in 2001.
Maina’s near 10 years in lower primary began when he was enrolled at Marumi Primary School in Kigumo, Murang’a County in 1992 and he admits that, “I was a serial repeater and everybody in this village knows that. People find it interesting and keep asking me about it.”
While Maina’s parents declined an interview, his former teacher, Mary Waitherero, who joined Marumi Primary School in 1994 did not mind talking about it. She recalls that Maina, now 33 years old, was the most notorious case she had ever handled in her teaching career.
“He spent most of his times in the bush and tormented kids in classroom. He always did the opposite of what you asked him to do,” says Waitherero, clarifying that Maina was not a dull pupil, just wayward.
Michael Mburu, another former teacher, says he always pulled out Maina from a thicket or atop a tree where he hid when late or unwilling to learn.
James Chege, a former classmate who found Maina in class one in 1995, recalls how he almost dropped out of school after constant bullying from Maina. “He inducted me to school in the worst way. We shivered whenever he reported to school. I even wanted to be transferred to a different school,” recalls Chege.
The first-born in a family of four was nicknamed Ka-pussy because of his knack for sneaking out and climbing trees. Others called him Stano, and the latest nickname is Joho, because his beards apparently look like Mombasa Governor Hassan Joho’s.
Maina later turned to pickpocketing with hilarious asides. He once pinched Sh5,000 from his grandma who had sold a cow. To figure out where she kept the money, he climbed into the firewood rack in her kitchen and spent two days monitoring her from above.
“I would climb down to then go up and sleep there. I saw her hiding the money under the mattress and I took some” he recalls of the incident in 2005.
From the spoils, Maina bought friends cheap liquor and when he realised the money was more he had expected, he dropped Sh1,000 into a pit latrine.
During a bride price negotiation of a relative in 2014, Maina is said to have pickpocketed Sh20,000 from an in-law before taking to the nearby town where he bought each patron beer for Sh1, 000 without demanding change, besides dishing out money to strangers.
Feeling rich, he paid a boda boda rider Sh700 to take him to distance of three kilometres. He was smoked out having squandered the cash and only had Sh4,000 left.
“I had money, so I decided to spend it with those without. I wanted to surprise the waitress, friends and strangers. It is true I told her the waitress to keep change”.
One time, he allegedly pick-pocketed a village mate Sh10,000 in a pub but he bought his victim cheap liquor for a whole week.
He has broken his two legs and right hand in drinking sprees and in May, Maina fell from a macadamia tree at night.
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