Police watchdog Ipoa is probing the strangling to death of suspected drug peddler Miji Aboud Mohamed in Lamu Island last week.
Aboud, 42, was found dead at Gadeni in Lamu Town shortly after he was arrested by police officers who allegedly found him with several sachets of heroin.
A postmortem conducted at King Fahd County Referral Hospital in Lamu Island revealed Aboud died due to the collapse of the lower rings of the trachea.
He also suffered a broken tooth and the lower rings of the trachea were severally broken.
The death of Aboud allegedly in the hands of the police has sparked outrage, with the public calling for an inquest into the incident.
Speaking when she met the family of the deceased in Lamu, Independent Policing Oversight Authority chairperson Anne Makori condemned the incident as heinous and called for calm as they commence investigations into it.
Makori revealed that the authority has since deployed a rapid response team for the investigations and that a comprehensive report will be out in two weeks.
She said IPOA will in the course of the investigations exercise utmost impartiality, fairness, and transparency.
She called on members of the public to avoid confrontations with the police over the matter and allow the law to take its course.
During the incident, a police officer was seriously wounded after he was attacked by a group of rowdy youth who were protesting the death of Aboud.
“We are here on a fact-finding mission on the death of Miji Aboud, which the police are being accused of orchestrating. The authority has already gotten down to work and investigations are on. Once they are over, we shall take appropriate action against anyone found culpable,” Makori said.
She said the action would include recommending prosecution of the person or persons to the Director of Public Prosecutions.
The IPOA team that included Coast Region coordinator Hussein Aden also visited the injured officer who is admitted at the Mpeketoni subcounty hospital.
They held a meeting with the county security committee led by the county commissioner.
“We are asking members of the public to exercise patience and allow the law to take its course. We want attacks on the police to cease immediately. We want to assure the family that justice will be served for their loved one,” said Makori.
Ipoa regional coordinator Aden revealed that his office has continuously received complaints about police denying members of the public P3 forms anytime a police officer is mentioned in incidents of human rights violation in Lamu.
He said such complaints will form part of their investigations and final report.
“We are aware that initial police training didn’t include matters of human rights but the new Constitution needs officers to acquire new skills that respect human rights and the general fundamental freedoms. We continue to push for more capacity building on that,” Aden said.
The deceased’s brother Hussein Miji said the family was convinced that the police are fully responsible for his brother’s death.
“As a family, all we want is justice because my brother’s death was not a natural one. They arrested him and a few minutes later, he was found dead. We pray Ipoa gets to the bottom of this and ensures the law takes its course on the culprits,” he said.
