Yusuf Ahmed Swaleh, alias Candy Rain, alias Kandereni, may have had a premonition about his death.
The man, in his early 50s, had several drug-related cases against him in court.
On March 8, when he was picked up from his Kwa Kadzengo home, Kikambala, in Kilifi county by seven people who introduced themselves as police officers, he repeated President William Ruto’s now famous ‘Mambo ni matatu’ quote.
“The men came, knocked on the gate and when they introduced themselves as police officers, Kandereni instructed that they should be let in,” a man privy to the incident said.
“They talked for a bit before Kandereni went into his bedroom to pick his T-shirt. He was only wearing a vest when the people came in.”
According to the witness, Kandereni appeared to have recognised one of the men who had come to pick him and this made him think it was the normal police who had come to pick him for interrogation, just as had happened many times before.
“That made him more relaxed. But when he got outside the gate, he stopped, upon seeing there were three vehicles outside, with men in balaclavas inside and some outside in strategic positions,” the witness said.
That is when he said, “Mambo ni matatu” before getting into one of the cars.
“Like he knew what would happen to him,” the witness said.
It was about 6.45pm.
A close friend, who happened to be around the area, said he saw the cars heading towards Kilifi town.
“After about 30 minutes, the cars were seen heading to Mombasa. We later came to learn they had made a stop at Kijipwa police station but he was not booked there,” the close friend said.
The family, who reported the matter at Kijipwa police station the following day at 10.50am under OB 15/09/03/2024, then started the long, tedious and anxious journey of looking for Kandereni.
They searched for him in all police stations in Kilifi and Mombasa without success.
The search was extended to Nairobi but to no avail.
“On March 17, the family was informed that a body has been found at Msumarini and was taken to Kilifi hospital mortuary and they should go and identify it,” the close friend said.
Family members went to Kilifi mortuary and identified the body, which had one bullet wound in the head.
Kilifi South police commander Daniel Kitavi said the body was found dumped in Kiruwitu, near Vipingo.
“We received information yesterday morning. The body had a visible injury on the head. The matter is under investigation. We are yet to know the identity of the deceased,” Kitavi told the Daily Nation on Monday morning.
Kandereni’s lawyer Jared Magolo accused the police of killing his client, a matter that police denied on Tuesday.
“We cannot pre-empt police investigations. We have to conclude the investigations before we can ascertain who was involved,” the police said.
On Monday at 1.30pm, a postmortem was conducted at Jocham hospital in Mombasa after the exercise failed to take place at Kilifi county hospital because of the doctors strike.
Muslims for Human Rights rapid response officer Francis Auma and Independent Police Oversight Authority officers were present at the postmortem.
The postmortem revealed that the single bullet entered the head just below the right ear and entered the brain causing death.
There was tension at their Bakarani home where family and friends had gathered in preparation to inter the body.
Talk was in hushed tones and strangers were looked at with inquisitive eyes.
Nobody wanted to talk to the press as family requested privacy.
At Jocham hospital, the situation was the same.
In the evening, the body was transported to Sargoi cemetery for interment but not without tension as hundreds of youth turned up to pay their last respects.
Auma said he informed IPOA of the matter and they will work hand in hand to get to the bottom of the execution.
“To us, police should not kill. This is extrajudicial killing, which we thought had gone. We fear many more will be executed if nothing is done," he said.
“This is the third such killings at the hand of police this year.”
Auma said no killing can be justified yet there are matters in court.
“The government knows what happened. They must be accountable,” he said.
