Three Policemen To Be Charged With Murder Of Bodaboda Rider

GARISSA, Kenya, Mar 16 – The Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (ODPP) has approved murder charges against three police officers in Garissa County.

The three, Benson Mulinge, Michael Rotich and Osoi Sakimba, all police constables at Madogo Police Station will be charged with murder following the death of Ibrahim Issack Gutu, a boda boda rider in Madogo township.

Independent Policing Oversight Authority (Ipoa), which investigated the matter concluded that the three officers should be charged.

Ipoa launched a probe after the death of Gutu, who was arrested by the three officers on May 30, 2014, and later found dead three days later.

The three took Gutu and bundled him into a private car belonging to one of them but failed to book him at any of the police stations in Garissa and Tana River Counties.

Gutu’s body was discovered two days later by a herder who knew him. The herder told investigators that the body had rubber bands around the neck and that it had started to decompose.

Ipoa investigators interviewed at least thirteen witnesses, who said they saw the police officers, who are well known to them, apprehending Gutu and taking him away in a private vehicle, plate number KAR 317U.