- She collapsed at home and was pronounced dead on arrival at Coptic Hospital.
- She had allegedly run away from home and failed to report to school.
Image: THE STAR
Police officers in Nairobi's Kilimani area are probing the death of a teenager that has been blamed on her family.
A father, mother and brother of the 15-year-old girl are suspected to have beaten her to death for running away from home. The couple and their son were arrested after she died in hospital.
They are expected in court on Monday when police will make a miscellaneous application to hold them longer as they complete investigations.
A postmortem is to be conducted at Coptic Hospital mortuary to establish the cause of death to enable investigators to know the charges to prefer against the couple and son—if any.
Coptic Hospital’s management, through a clinical officer, told the Directorate of Criminal Investigations officers that at around 9pm on May 20, they received a 15-year-old patient—a student at Kiteta Girls Secondary in Mbooni, Makueni county.
She was accompanied by her father, Frankline Ntwiga Marangu, and was taken for a medical check-up as she had allegedly run away from home and failed to report to school. The girl was examined and discharged. The father took her back home at Jamhuri Showground quarters.
However, in the wee hours of Friday, the girl was rushed to the same hospital after she allegedly collapsed at home following a serious beating from her father; mother, who works at ASK showground; and elder brother, a student at the Technical University of Kenya.
The police say she was pronounced dead on arrival at Coptic. The clinical officer said her body had bruises all over, a sign that she had been grievously assaulted.
Kilimani DCI officers visited the family's house and recovered one PPR pipe believed to have been used in the assault. It is being held as an exhibit.
The house was declared a crime scene. And as investigations continue, the three suspects have been placed in custody at the Kilimani police station.
Nairobi police boss Augustine Nthumbi will conclusively investigate the matter.
“We will seek more time to hold them as the probe goes on,” he said.