Human rights organisations at the Coast are calling for justice following the mysterious death of a 34-year-old man at Kizurini police station in Kaloleni, Kilifi county.
Police say the deceased, Santa Kaingu, a palm wine tapper and seller, died by suicide after hanging himself using a piece of a blanket in the cell he was held in.
Kaingu is said to have been arrested by six officers while at a birthday party hosted by his friend in Kaloleni town on January 11.
According to eyewitnesses, Kaingu was accosted by one officer who dragged him using the necktie he was wearing causing him to start choking.
“After realising that foam was coming out of his mouth, the officer stopped. However, after some minutes his five other colleagues joined him and started hitting Kaingu again as people watched helplessly,” said Wilfred Mtengo, the deceased's cousin.
Mtengo said those attending the party narrated to them that the officers took Kaingu outside and left with him using motorbikes.
“We were informed that they had taken him to the police station, but the next morning the police came to his homestead and invited his 80-year-old mother to the police station. We were later informed that Kaingu is dead and his body was at the Coast General Teaching and Referral Hospital in Mombasa,” Mtengo said.
The family is now demanding justice to ascertain how their relative died while in police custody.
They are alleging this is a case of extra-judicial killing and want investigations done and the officers involved arrested.
A postmortem conducted on his body at the CGTRH on Wednesday revealed that Kaingu died as a result of a lack of enough oxygen going to the brain due to strangulation.
Kaingu is expected to be laid to rest this Saturday at his home village of Malwani, Kaloleni Subcounty.
Right groups at the Coast led by Haki Afrika want the Independent Policing Oversight Authority (Ipoa) to investigate the matter.
“We want to know where the said blanket he used to hang himself with came from yet we know police cells don’t have blankets. This matter leaves more questions than answers,” said Mathias Shipeta, a rapid response officer at Haki Afrika.
Shipeta questions why Kaingu’s family was not informed of his death and allowed to come and view his body at the police cell, only to be informed that his body was in Mombasa, some 27 kilometres from Kaloleni yet there are hospitals nearby.
“If they (police) were really taking him to the hospital, why come all the way to Mombasa when we have a hospital in Kaloleni?” Shipeta posed.
He added that it was now time for police stations and cells to have CCTV cameras, adding that police stations need to be the safest places any Kenyan finds him or herself in, not places where they lose lives mysteriously.
According to Simon Kazungu from Kilifi Social Justice Centre, the information they have gathered is that Kaingu was involved in a confrontation with one of the officers from the station last October and injured the officer with a knife.
The said officer is said to be among the six officers who came to arrest him at the party.
“There is no other way of looking at this matter other than a revenge mission by the said officer,” Kazungu said.
Mohammed Mwalimu, a monitoring officer from the Independent Medico-Legal Unit (IMLU) said cases of people dying mysteriously in police cells were beginning to rise in Kaloleni, a matter that needed to be addressed immediately.
In early January, 42-year-old Isaac Ngombo Lewa is alleged to have died by suicide at the Chasimba police cell after hanging himself using his ‘boxer’.
He was arrested on December 31 over alleged attempted arson after he was accused of torching a drinking den in the village.
“We want investigations conducted by Ipoa so that these families get justice,” Mwalimu said.
-Edited by SKanyara
