A police officer will face murder charges after a student he shot in an altercation died in hospital in Eldoret Town.
The police officer was arrested over the shooting incident of Kitale Polytechnic student Dalphia Mwangi, 22, on October 22, 2025.
Mwangi succumbed to his stomach injuries in hospital on Friday, police said. He had been shot and wounded in the stomach.
The development happened as the police officer was arraigned at the magistrate’s court in Kitale and the investigating officer from Independent Policing Oversight Authority successfully made a miscellaneous application to hold him for ten days.
An order was issued for the officer to be remanded at Kiminini police station for ten days pending ongoing investigations.
Later in the evening, the victim succumbed while
undergoing treatment at Top Hill Hospital in Eldoret; thus, the case changed to
murder, police said.
The police officer was arrested after an identification parade was conducted at the Kitale police station and some witnesses identified the officer as the one who shot the student.
The victim was shot at the Norec Shopping Centre at a pool table site where he and his colleagues were playing on October 22 at dawn.
Witnesses claimed the police officer attached to the local police station shot him and escaped on a motorcycle.
Police rushed to the scene and found blood stains outside a pool table shop, while two spent cartridges of 9mm and one bullet head were recovered.
Witnesses told police there was an altercation between the police officer who works as a signaler and the student before he was shot at close range in the stomach. He was later identified as a police officer at the local station.
The victim was admitted at the Kijana Wamalwa Referral Hospital in a critical condition before being moved to Eldoret where he died.
Police said the incident is an isolated one and should not be used to judge the service.
The police argued they have mechanisms to address
such incidents.
Cases where rogue police officers misuse their weapons have been on the rise amid efforts to solve the incidents.
This, among others, is linked to the rising trend of trauma in the service, officials say.
