A family in Rongo wants action taken against a police officer based at Kamagambo Police station over the death of their son in December last year.
Fredrick Onyango Omondi was shot dead by a police officer at about 1.30am. He was 18.
On Tuesday distraught parents Jared Opiyo, 45, and Caroline Atieno, 40, said they are traumatised as they always see the officer every day.
They spoke to the Star at their home in Kamondi village in the outskirts of Rongo town.
“Our son’s grave is still fresh while the policeman who shot him walks freely in Rongo town. We feel helpless,” Opiyo said.
When the family tried to report their case at the station they were chased away with stones and threatened by gun-toting officers, Opiyo said.
“We got help from local leaders who helped put pressure on the police to have the case reported and pushed through a postmortem report after we refused to bury him,” Onyango's brother Bernard Tei, 26, said.
Tei said his brother was running away when he was shot from behind by police.
“Police said he was a thug, but we want to know which law in Kenya allows for extra-judicial killing and shooting someone from behind,” Tei said.
The family insisted their child was innocent and was heading home after picking his phone from a charging shop when he met the officers.
They reported the matter through criminal investigation department OB No: 4/1/12/2018.
A pathologist report dated December 24 2018 by Dixon Mchana at the Rosewood Mortuary seen by the Star said the body had two bullet wounds and the youth died of “severe spinal injury through two gunshot wounds.”
The report said police officers were on night patrol “when the deceased emerged from the darkness and grabbed the rifle of one of the officers and this prompted the other officer to shoot.”
Speaking in his office, Migori county police commander Joseph Nthenge said the matter is being investigated by Ipoa and police internal affairs department.
“We have had complaints that police officers can’t investigate their colleagues, that is why external independent bodies join such matters,” Nthenge said.
Nthenge said once investigations are finalised, if found to have a question to answer, the officer will be charged.
He said police officers have been mandated to use necessary force when faced with losing their licenced firearms.
Tobias Ogolla of Universal Relief Foundation and Titus Orwa of Migori County Civil Society Organisation Forum said despite the matter being reported to the Independent Police Oversight Authority the slow process has created mistrust with police.
“Migori is among counties where residents have faced police brutality especially during protests, we don’t have trust with police reforms and need this case to go through,” Orwa said.
Ogolla said most Kenyans are afraid of seeking justice against officers at a station, especially those who have overstayed.
The two activists and the family are calling on Interior Cabinet Secretary Fred Matiang’i to make the officer face the law.
(edited by O. Owino)
