Just over a year ago, on May 28, 2024, the family of 20-month-old baby Alexander Mutunga suffered an unimaginable loss when he passed away hours after being assaulted in police custody.
Earlier that day, Mutunga's mother, Ziporah Mutheu, had gone to collect a debt owed to her by a local businesswoman when she insulted her and sent her away.
Unbeknownst to Mutheu, the woman would file a complaint at the local police station in Kambu, Makueni County, turning the tables on her and claiming Mutheu owed her Ksh10,000 instead.
When the police officers arrived to apprehend her, Mutheu had strapped her baby to her back, but this seemingly did not deter the officers, who she says hit her with a baton and slapped her three times, one landing on her son. She fell on the floor, and her son hit his head on the pallet and the counter.
While in police custody, the child started vomiting and convulsing, and she asked the duty officer to help her get the child to the hospital, but he refused.
"When locked in the cell at 5:30pm, my baby developed a fever, and when I tried breastfeeding him, he started vomiting," Mutheu recalled in an interview with KTN News a week after the ordeal.
"I banged on the cell door, and the officer on duty told me that the inspector had directed them to keep me locked up and take my fingerprints, but he would not do it because he was not the arresting officer and the arresting officer was on a three-day leave."
Hours later, at about 7pm, she begged the police to take the child to the hospital again, with the same result.
It was not until 9pm that the cell was opened, and she was told she could take the child to the hospital, at which point he had already passed away, unbeknownst to Mutheu.
A postmortem exam conducted by government pathologist Grace Midigo at Kambu Sub-County Hospital confirmed that the baby had passed on from bleeding internally caused by blunt force trauma to the head.
Despite seeking an OB and statements being taken from the officers back then, the family is still awaiting justice, as the Independent Policing Oversight Authority (IPOA) and the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) have remained mum.
In her 2024 interview, she claimed that the police officers involved had already started calling her, asking her to revise her statement and say she was released earlier, and her baby was still alive and well when she left.
Efforts by Kenyans.co.ke to reach IPOA for comments over the matter went unanswered.
In a statement on Wednesday, Usikimye Founder and human rights activist Njeri wa Migwi relayed that Mutheu is still seeking justice, calling the organisation weekly and visiting monthly to enquire about the progress of the case, which has yet to make it to court.
Devastatingly, she suffered a lot more after the death of her son, with her store getting robbed while she was in police custody, her older son going missing for a bit, and her husband leaving her for someone else for being "too stuck looking for justice and her grief".
