- Mutyambai says the team has to get to the bottom of the matter and report to him the findings for action
- A number of local leaders had petitioned the IG to institute an independent probe.
Image: Handout
A team of police officers has been deployed to investigate the death of two brothers whose bodies were Wednesday found at the Embu Level 5 Hospital mortuary, three days after their arrest.
Benson Njiru, 22, and Emmanuel Mutura, 19, had been arrested three days earlier for allegedly breaking Covid-19 rules. They were last seen alive in Kianjokoma town on Sunday night as police arrested them for being outside during curfew hours.
Njiru was a student at Kabarak University, while Mutura studied at Don Bosco Technology Training Institute in Karen, Nairobi. They were out on long holidays and were running a business in the meantime.
Inspector General of Police Hilary Mutyambai said the team from the Internal Affairs Unit has to get to the bottom of the matter.
"They will report back as soon as possible with their findings for action,” he said.
Independent Policing Oversight Authority chairperson Anne Makori said she had also sent a team to help their Meru counterparts in the probe.
"IPOA has this morning deployed investigators from its Nairobi headquarters to beef up their Meru Rapid Investigations counterparts who launched their investigations yesterday.
"This is intended to fast-track the investigations. Upon conclusion of the investigations and pursuant to Section 6(a) of the IPOA Act, the Authority will make recommendations, including prosecution if criminal culpability is established on the part of the police officers involved," she said in a statement.
Makori said the authority also discourages members of the public from taking the law into their own hands by attacking the police and damaging public property as was illustrated Wednesday.
"In this regard, IPOA calls for public calmness and restraint as it undertakes thorough investigations into the matter."
The brothers' family said they were brutally murdered by police officers. But Embu East police boss Emily Ngaruiya claimed the brothers jumped from a moving police vehicle at 10.30pm on Sunday and succumbed to their injuries.
She said they landed on the tarmac.
It emerged that a number of local leaders had petitioned IG Mutyambai to institute an independent probe into the incident. They argued the claims given by local police were not satisfactory, hence the need for an independent probe.
IAU director Mohamed Amin is leading the probe. The team will, among other things, investigate negligence.
As part of efforts to strengthen the unit’s operations, IAU has been allowed to establish and devolve its services to conduct investigations into police misconduct in a fair and effective manner and report directly to the Inspector General.
The unit is mandated to, among other roles, deal with cases of indiscipline, corruption and misconduct within the police service as may be reported by their colleagues or members of the public.
The Embu deaths sparked protests in the area, leading to the torching of a police vehicle.
Area police boss Ngaruiya said his officers were enforcing Covid-19 rules when they came across the two brothers and nine other suspects on Sunday night and bundled them into a police vehicle.
When the officers arrived at the Manyatta police station, they discovered the two brothers were missing and went back to look for them, she said.
It was then that they found them lying on the roadside with serious head injuries and took them to the Embu Level Five Hospital for treatment where they were declared dead.
But the duo's parents, John Ndwiga and Catherine Wawira, disagree, saying their children were murdered by the police and their bodies secretly taken to the mortuary without their knowledge to cover up evidence.
When the brothers failed to return home on Sunday night, the family started searching for them. They later reported them as missing at the Manyatta police station where the officers were not cooperative until Wednesday when they discovered the bodies.