• Police say the late, an employee of Thika Lodge, drowned in an unfinished building.
• DCI believes he was killed somewhere and dumped in the building.
The DCI has launched investigations into the death of a 24-year-old man after police used Covid-19 to force his burial within 24 hours and no postmortem report.
Makau Mutinda aka Kamundi worked for Peter Paul Nyoike who is the proprietor of Thika Lodge according to the OB recorded at Matuu police station.
The DCI started investigations after a mortuary attendant informed them that Kamundi’s body had injuries despite the police claiming he had drowned in an unfinished building.
“The body had head injuries on the lower abdomen and limbs,” Matuu Hospital mortuary attendant Peter Musee Muli told the police.
The OB 21/19/5/2020 adds that the body was released to the family after an affidavit was sworn by the deceased’s brother Peter Kamende as having been told by the police that postmortem is expensive.
“The body of former employee Makau Mutinda was found dumped behind Thika Lodge in unfinished building pool of water,” the report filed at 1355 hours read.
Local police officers ensured he was buried within 24 hours as demanded by the Covid-19 directives. They also recorded in the OB that Kamundi drowned in the pool of water in the building.
Subsequently, they told the family that Kamundi was buried and that police could not carry out investigations and postmortem.
Upon DCI investigations, the detectives also discovered that the deceased’s stomach, which was photographed by police constables on May 6 was not swollen, raising suspicion on the cause of death.
Detectives proceeded to Kathiani court, obtained an exhumation order which was acted on last Friday by chief government pathologist Johansen Oduor. Others who witnessed the postmortem include family members of the deceased, Yatta officers, crime personnel, Yatta OCS and public health officers.
Oduor established that the man died following a head injury. “The investigations will now establish the motive of the murder, neglect of public duty and cover-up by officers who handled the matter,” the detectives said.
The investigations will also establish the police who covered up Kamundi’s murder and all the people who played part in the cover-up to deny him justice.
Officials from the Directorate of Criminal Investigations believe that Kamundi was murdered and dumped in a pool of water in an unfinished building next to the lodge.
“We are investigating and we will definitely prosecute the suspects,” the DCI officials said.
Edited by R.Wamochie