Police Force Man to Sleep Under Lorry With Dead Wife [PHOTOS]

Police set up roadblocks isolating the Nairobi Metropolitan Area on April 7, 2020.
Police set up roadblocks isolating the Nairobi Metropolitan Area on April 7, 2020.
Daily Nation

A man identified as Charles Mwenda has sparked emotions on social media after narrating how police officers forced him to sleep under a lorry with the body of his dead wife at the Kianjai Police Post in Meru.

Mwenda's post has sparked outrage on social media with many condemning the inhuman act by the police that left him stranded with the wife's body.

Speaking to Kenyans.co.ke, Meru County Police Commander Patrick Lumumba declined to comment on the issue.

"I'm not allowed to talk anything about Covid-19 issues, the chairman of the Covid-19 team is the county commissioner, the issue was handled by the multiagency team," noted Lumumba. 

The man who works in Malindi, Kilifi County had travelled to his rural home in Tigania West Sub-County in Meru on Wednesday, May 27, for the wife's burial.

A photo of a casket
A casket placed under a lorry at the Kianjai Police Post on Thursday, May 28.
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He was in the company of friends and family from Malindi to bury his wife who had been battling cancer for about two years

Mwenda claims that he obtained the proper certification before embarking on the journey as per the government's new directives on burying of the dead during the pandemic.

"Having tested Coronavirus negative and all travel permits from relevant authorities, I crossed all police barriers.

"At 11.00 p.m. the night of Thursday at Meru-Tharaka Nithi border a place called Keira, we were stopped by police and forced out of the car. What I saw there was so inhuman," wrote Mwenda.

After lengthy discussions by the police, the family and friends were forced to turn back to Malindi and he was left alone with the casket.

The casket was loaded into a police car and Mwenda was threatened with a 14-day quarantine after the burial of his wife.

The widower narrated the inhuman act by the police that forced him to sleep under a lorry with the body of his wife on a rainy night.

"I was later dropped at Kianjai Police Post at 2.00 a.m. I was confused and did not even know the way home. The body of my wife was offloaded from the police vehicle and put on the roadside.

"I pleaded with the police to get the body to my home which is 5km from the police station but they refused. I was forced to spend the night with the casket. To make the matters worse, it was raining," explained Mwenda.

Mwenda was forced to pull the casket under a lorry which was parked at the station. He noted that he did not know what to do on a day he describes as the darkest of his life.

A friend of his came to his rescue on Friday, May 29, and picked him up at 6:00 a.m. to ferry the casket home.

A photo of Charles Mwenda
Charles Mwenda standing next to the graveyard of his wife who succumbed to cancer.
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