A miraa driver who was forced to spend a night in a police station with his wife’s body has sued the state seeking compensation.
Charles Mwenda, 32, said police officers distressed him by holding him at Kianjai Police post as he took his wife's body for burial at Nairiri village in Tigania West.
Faith Mwende died from abdominal cancer. She left a seven-month-old baby and another child aged six.
Mwenda was forced to bury his wife alone after police blocked his family members.
Through lawyer Vivian Wambulwa, Mwenda has sued Inspector General of Police Hillary Mutyambai, Meru county government and Attorney General Kihara Kariuki seeking general and punitive damages against the respondents.
He wants the court to order that actions of the police and medical officers infringed his rights and freedoms.
Mwenda had travelled on Wednesday, May 27, from Malindi together with friends and relatives to bury his wife. He worked as a miraa transporter from Mombasa to Malindi.
Mwenda narrated that he had tested negative for Covid-19 and had all travel permits from the relevant authorities.
But trouble started when he got to Keeria, the border of Meru and Tharaka Nithi counties.
The wife died on May 24 and Mwenda was instructed to collect the body within the shortest time possible from the morgue. He said he spent Sh150,000 from Malindi to Meru.
The Malindi Methodist bus he had hired had 52 seats. The travellers were 31. Everyone had a mask. He had a Covid-19 clearance letter. But police ignored all that.
“Despite having health certificates clearing me and other family members including my two kids of the novel coronavirus, police and county government officials ordered them back to Malindi leaving me alone with a casket. I pulled the casket all alone and sheltered it under the lorry that was parked near Kianjai police post,” Mwenda says in his affidavit.
Malindi subcounty police commander Simion Muli cleared him and 31 other mourners to travel from to Meru to bury the woman.
Police in Meru rejected his pleas to be escorted for fewer than five kilometres to where he was to bury his wife.
Wambulwa said her client was discriminated against for having come from Covid-19 affected area. His only sin was that his wife died during this period, she said.
The Law Society of Kenya has been enjoined in the petition as are the Independent Policing Oversight Authority and the Kenya National Commission of Human Rights.
Legal Aid Clinic, an NGO which promotes access to justice is also listed as an interested party in the suit.
Meru resident magistrate Alfred Mabeya directed the petitioner to serve the respondents and interested parties with suit papers.
The matter will be mentioned on July 6, for further directions.
(edited by o. owino)
