A family in Nairobi was ordered to part with a court fine before accessing the body of the kin who passed away mysteriously while in custody at Pangani Police Station.
The suspect, Robert Mureithi Muriuki, had been arrested after been nabbed by police officers attached to the station for not observing Covid-19 rules.
A police report then emerged on the morning of Sunday, July 11, that Mureithi collapsed and died while in a cell at the station.
When the family attempted to access the body of the deceased, they were slapped with a Ksh200 fine for the kin, a payment they were to make at Makadara Law Courts.
Speaking to the press, Mureithi's brother Isaac Ngotho noted that the family did not buy the police explanation on the circumstances under which their kin passed away.
He disclosed that after they were given access to the body, they discovered injuries on their kin suggesting that he must have been tortured before his death.
"I cannot believe that. There is no way you can fall and sustain cuts on your arms, legs and the head. That is torture. He was in a cell.
"I had to leave home on Sunday to come and see him," stated Ngotho.
Another kin corroborated Ngotho's observation noting that they had been ordered to make their payment first before accessing the body.
"We were told to pay the fine first at Makadara. His brother first went to the station and was told to pay the fine. When I went, I was also told the same thing.
"We went in the morning. We saw on social media the police claim that he collapsed and died," noted the kin.
Mureithi, who was a charcoal seller along Park Road in Nairobi, was a breadwinner for his nuclear family with two children.
His brother noted that after his demise, he was now the breadwinner for the extended family since their parents are also jobless.
This comes barely two weeks after Interior CS Fred Matiang'i launched investigations at Rioma Police Station where three people mysteriously died while in police custody.
