A family in Kilifi County is morning the death of its breadwinner who plunged to death while escaping possible police brutality.
Witnesses narrated to Citizen TV that police had been chasing the rider, Karissa Nguwa, on the evening of Saturday, June 6, at around 7:30 pm when he decided to jump into a river.
A colleague who was close by revealed that prior to him jumping, he had been beaten by the officers who accused him of disobeying curfew orders.
His friend got alarmed when the deceased was taking too long to come back to the shore even after the officers had left with his motorbike.
"When they got to the river, they came face to face with the police officers who were on patrol implementing the curfew. The officers stopped them but the riders feared.
"They started riding in the opposite direction. Police began chasing him and one of them was caught. When he alighted from his motorbike, they beat him up," narrated the witness noting that it was at that moment he jumped into the river.
"When he jumped into the river, the officers took off with his motorbike. His colleague then started urging him to get out of the river but he could not," he added.
His widow appealed to the state for help noting that her husband and a father of four was the family's breadwinner.
"I am crying for help. I have four children and a grandchild and I demand justice for my husband," she stated.
There have been numerous cases of police brutality since the curfew began that forced Interior CS Fred Matiang'i to convene a meeting that resolved to deal with rogue police officers.
In the meeting that was carried out on Friday, the team resolved to forward all police brutality cases to court after investigations by the Independent Policing Oversight Authority (IPOA).
The Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) Noordin Haji noted that 176 cases were in the pipeline after the files were forwarded to his office.
Out of the 176, charges for 85 have already been pressed, 23 of which are accused of murder. Haji disclosed that the rest were being reviewed for appropriate action.
Over eight lives have been lost to police brutality since President Uhuru Kenyatta instituted the dusk-to-dawn curfew to curb the spread of the Covid-19 virus.
