Lamu Central subcounty police commander Samuel Nyawa Murinzi was Saturday laid to rest at his Mugamani-Shambini home in Kinango, Kwale.
Murinzi, 50, succumbed to Covid-19 complications at the Coast General Hospital on September 12, days after his wedding.
The officer served as a reverend of the East African Pentecostal Church. He was eulogised as a humble and polite man who put the needs of others before his own.
The father of six lost his first wife last year to cancer of the bone marrow and had just remarried before he fell sick.
The firstborn in a family of nine had served in Lamu for slightly over a month, having been posted to the area last month.
Murinzi received full police honours, including a 21-gun salute, during a burial ceremony attended by hundreds of people, including Lamu elders and clerics.
Murinzi had served as a deputy OCPD in Changamwe and Mombasa’s Urban and Likoni police stations before he was promoted and transferred to Lamu Central as subcounty police commander.
Coast Inter-Faith Council of Clerics chairperson Mohamed Abdulkadir eulogised him as a person with a good heart, urging police officers to emulate their departed colleague.
Abdulkadir described Murinzi as a God-fearing man who did not engage in corruption.
“Nyawa was different. His heart was clean and so were his hands. If all officers were to have a heart like his, Kenya would be a very different country,” he said.
Murinzi leaves behind six children from his first marriage and a widow.
While in National Police Service, he joined Bethany Christian College in Nairobi where he pursued a diploma in Christianity and leadership.
He later enrolled at Kabarak University for a degree in Christianity and leadership and later a master’s degree from Baptist College in Mombasa.
