Comedian Iryamukuru Etienne, famously known in the 'Bigomba guhinduka' as 5k Etienne, thanks God he is still alive.
Earlier this month, on the night of Thursday, March 9, the rising star comedian was attacked and robbed by unknown assailants when returning to his home at around midnight. That was minutes after he left his friend and neighbour's home in the Gisozi area of Kigali.
Speaking to The New Times on March 17, he recounted the ordeal.
He said: "After I had spent the whole day at campus, on my way back home I passed by my colleague Japheth’s home at around 10pm. We had to talk about essential tips he missed during class as he did not attend any of the sessions regarding our on-going project ‘Bigomba guhinduka’ which was awarded by the ‘Innovation accelerator (iAccelerator5) after winning the competition.’’
The late night conversation covered most important highlights of their project as they are looking forward to widening their boundaries and living their dream.
ALSO READ: How ‘Bigomba guhinduka’ comedy show unfolded
"After I left his house, at around 1 am, I walked to my home, not far away from his. The road seemed empty and quiet in every corner with no one moving around, not until I bumped into four strangers. I did not bother about who and where are they from. One of them mistakenly called me twice by the name Eric. Alarmed, I told them I was not [Eric] and just quickened my pace as I did not want to mess around with anyone at that time of the night.”
"As I walked away, suddenly the assailant took me by surprise, jumping over my back. He choked me and I tried to fight back but three others joined him until I was overpowered. They mugged me and took off with everything I had including my laptop, documents, ID card, mobile phone.
"After a while, about 15 minutes, I was able to wake up unsteady and went back to Japheth’s house with bare feet. He was shocked on seeing what had happened to me. We first went to alert RIB, at the Gisozi branch and immediately drove to a dispensary in Kagugu for the first aid. Later on, I went for proper check-up at CHUK and, fortunately, everything was pretty good except reddish colour in my left side eye.”