NAIROBI,Kenya, Aug 26 – The killing of two brothers,Benson Njiru, 22, and Emmanuel Mutura, 19, allegedly at the hands of police officers in Embu, who were arrested for allegedly flouting COVID-19 curfew directives on Sunday, August 1, reinforced Kenyan’s perception of a ‘murderous’ police service amidst calls for serious reforms.
Following public outcry initially characterized by violent protests in Embu that resulted in the death of a protester, six police officers: Benson Mbuthia, Consolota Kariuki, Nicholas Cheruiyot, Martin Wanyama, Lilian Cherono and James Mwanikiwere,were arrested with the Director of public Prosecutions Noordin Haji directing their arraignment.
More than a week since they were presented in court, the six have now filed a petition under a certificate of urgency through their legal counsel Danstan Omari seeking among others the exhumation of the bodies of the deceased before murder charges are preferred against them.
The six argue that when the initial postmortem examination was conducted neither their private pathologist nor advocate were present in an exercise only privy to, “government officers and family representatives,”
The autopsy report revealed one of the Embu brothers died due to trauma caused by a blunt object.
The other had multiple injuries.
“When postmortem was done the accused police officers never had a chance to have their advocate present neither did they have a chance to send their pathologist to be present for the postmortem…which is a serious flaw and that is why we are saying we need an exhumation order for a proper postmortem,” Said Lawyer Dantsan Omari.
In the certificate of urgency the six suspects are also seeking to be granted bail, that the mater be referred for an inquest so that proper investigations are done as to who will be blamed for the cause of death as well seeking orders to be granted access to their phones under strict police supervision.
“They have told us to go to court to seek an order for them to be given their phones only under the supervision of the police for them to transact school fees, pay rent and legal fees through their M-Pesa account. They are not seeking for the phones to be released to them, it is a fundamental human right that the phone which has M-pesa money they should be allowed to transact the account,”
Additionally in the petition, the six officers are refuting claims that they assaulted and killed the deceased brothers.
They are alleging that on the night of August 1, 2021, at around 9:25pm, they left the Manyatta police station for their assigned duties of enforcing the COVID-19 curfew directives moving to several places where they arrested 10 people including the deceased.
Omari who spoke outside the Milimani Law Courts said that they (those arrested) were put inside the police van as one officer sat on the left side of the vehicle and two others on the left side in the back of the land cruiser.
“As the vehicle was moving towards Manyatta station, the two deceased, because police vehicles are not completely covered on their sides… is a toppling ‘tandarua’ (fabric covering the vehicle’s sides) the boys , two of them managed to get outside and jumped through the ‘tandarua’ and landed on the road. It was raining, foggy, non of the police officers who were behind, could be able to see, non of the police officers seated in front of the vehicle could see..” he said.
Presented as part of the petition are two witness statements from two of the arrested persons in the police land cruiser who claim to have heard the boys ‘conspiring’ that they will jump from the moving vehicle.
“…this person who has written a statement believes after jumping, the guys went alive and escaped. The other person who was seated opposite also has written a statement of what he saw and the noise he heard out of the ‘banging’…..as they banged on the tarmac. These statements were ignored,” said Omari.
On the fateful day however other witnesses contradicted the police statements saying that they had assaulted them by hitting them with a blunt object before they were bundled inside the vehicle.
The officers further proceed to say that upon arrival at the Manyatta police station, a mandatory head count revealed that only 8 persons were in the vehicle prompting them to go back to where they had come from. It is here where they allegedly found the bodies of the deceased by the road.
“They called their seniors who summoned the traffic police officers, who came and took charge since it was now a traffic offense… they took the bodies. The deceased were never entered in the OB of the police station, they were recorded in the OB of the traffic police officers, the details are there.” said Omari who further stated, “The traffic police took the photos of the scene of crime and took the body to the mortuary. In the morning they started investigating and taking statements from the 8 who were in that vehicle, we have attached the 8 statements,two explaining what happened, six explaining they were drunk and did not see what happened. We have also attached statements of the police officers explaining what happened. Those statements were never considered and we hope the DPP will consider them,”
The suspects have denied narratives of a ‘police cover-up’ and that the deceased were taken to the forest and beaten up,insisting that they jumped from the vehicle in an a attempt to escape which later turning ‘suidical’
The six officers are being detained at the Capitol Hill police station.
Omari claims than the officers are being unfairly condemned yet they have not been heard arguing that since the matter is of public interest, they may be charged with murder in an attempt to purely ‘pacify’ the public who do not have the true facts of the events.
“This is purely a problem of perception that the police are doing a wrong thing, on this matter the police are very clean, they did a fantastic job, they are being arraigned in court simply because of the perception that police were part and parcel of the brutal murder….we hope the judge will respond to the the order, we have produced all the evidence.” he said.
More than 30 people have allegedly been killed by police between March 2020 to date, during operations to enforce COVID-19 protocols.
Lobby group, Independent Medico Legal Unit (IMLU) has documented at least 25 cases of extra-judicial killings and 43 cases of torture and ill-treatment during the period.
The matter will now be mentioned on Tuesday next week.
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