The discovery of a Meru man's body at the Nyambene Level 4 Hospital on Tuesday has raised questions and suspicions that he was murdered.
According to his wife, Gloria Gatwiri, the man identified as Silvester Peter Mwenda was taken from his home by men posing as detectives from the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) attached to Maua Police Station on Friday night.
"The officers identified themselves as DCI officers from Maua when they left with him, together with his vehicle," Gatwiri narrated.
On their way out of the victim's house, she claimed, the aforementioned officers beat him. They also took a National Police Reserve (NPR) officer, with whom Mwenda is friends.
"They were beating him, and as they were leaving, they took three goats with them. They also took another man, an NPR who was nearby, who was alleged to be his friend," she added.
According to Gatwiri, she went searching for her husband the next day and found him with the detectives. "The next day, we found the detectives with him," she narrated.
However, when she and her other family members went to court on Monday to follow the case, they could not find him. The only person they found was the NPR officer.
They would later find his lifeless body at the Nyambene Level 4 Hospital morgue, after searching several police stations in vain.
"When we came to court on Monday, we searched for him, but we never found him. However, the other guy who was also arrested with him was found. When we went searching in the mortuary, that is where we found him dead," she added.
While the family suspects Mwendwa died at the hands of the police, an account the National Police Service disputes. According to the police, the victim succumbed to injuries during a mob justice incident.
Meru County Criminal Investigating officer, Abednego Kavoo disputed these accusations and said that the late suspect was a robbery suspect who assisted the police in arresting another suspect with G3 and AK-47 rifles. Still, he succumbed to injuries following a mob justice incident.
"In that operation, there was a lot of mix-up between members of the public and the police. The angry mob had raised some issues, and so they started attacking the suspect, and unfortunately, they somehow injured the deceased," said Kavoo.
He further added that the police were unable to assist him because they arrived too late after the incident occurred.
"By the time the police arrested the NPR and the official G3 rifle, they found the mob had beaten the boy," he added.
