Had he not visited Narasha forest in Eldama Ravine sub-County, Baringo County last week, Stephen Mwangi, 19, would probably be in class today settling down at his Maji Mazuri Secondary School this first week of second term.
Like the rest of the learners countrywide, the Form Three student was expected to report to his school on Monday as schools countrywide reopened.
However, a phone call from his mother from Narasha Forest, Maji Mazuri on Wednesday last week, triggered a series of events that resulted in his tragic death a day after schools reopened.
In the forest, the teenager was allegedly assaulted by five officers from the Kenya Forest Service (KFS).
He sustained serious injuries and was treated at the Eldama Ravine Sub-County Hospital and later referred to Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital (MTRH) where he died.
According to medical reports, the firstborn son in a family of six had a blood clot on his head, caused by a crack in the skull. His ribs were also broken.
It all started on Wednesday last week when the mother of the deceased, Mary Wambui, left for the farm in Narasha forest accompanied by her 11-year-old son to prune some trees.
After a day’s work, Ms Wambui spotted and picked a tree stump in the forest to take home, intending to split it for firewood.
But as fate would have it, the KFS officers accosted and detained her while accusing her of engaging in illegal logging.
According to Ms Wambui, the two officers had detained her and demanded a Sh2,000 bribe in exchange for her release.
Desperate, she called a neighbour and was able to raise an additional Sh1,000. Then she called her elder son, Mwangi, to bring her the balance of Sh500.
While waiting for the money to be delivered, the two officers were joined by three colleagues.
According to the mother, the officers rained kicks and blows, claiming she was being difficult.
When he son arrived with the money, he was horrified to find his handcuffed mother being assaulted and sexually harassed by the officers.
When the late Mwangi demanded to know why the officers were harassing his mother, they turned on him, clobbering him with crude weapons, including a metal rod, before they fired three gunshots in the air.
Fearing that they could die at the hands of the officers, Ms Wambui' raised an alarm that attracted passers-by.
“By this time my son had been beaten to a pulp. He could not cry anymore. Tears were just flowing from his cheeks,” the distraught mother recounted.
The officers then requested a vehicle from their station, and when it arrived, they took mother and son to Eldama Ravine Police station where they booked her in the cell and told her they were taking her seriously injured son to the hospital.
On Thursday morning, Ms Wambui’s mother (the late Mwangi's maternal grandmother) went to Eldama Ravine sub-County Hospital where she found her grandson in critical condition.
He was lying unconscious on the hospital bed in handcuffs, under the watch of the same officers who had assaulted him.
The mother was supposed to be arraigned in court in the morning but owing to her son’s condition was asked to pay a cash bail of Sh6,000 to secure her release and go and take care of her ailing son.
“I was so shocked to find him seriously ill. He was not even talking,” said Ms Wambui.
She went back to the police station to record a statement on his son’s condition and was told she would be allowed to fill out a P3 form once some tests had been done.
On Friday, she left her ailing son under the watch of his grandmother and went back home to look for money so that she could seek a referral because his condition was deteriorating.
The officers had told the medics that they didn’t have money to cater for the teen’s referral to MTRH, shifting the responsibility to his kin.
“I had no more money to take him for specialised treatment but I had to do anything to save his life,” Ms Wambui told the Nation.
She had sold a donkey and two sheep and I managed to get some money. She then paid Sh8,000 for the ambulance to Eldoret where she had been referred to.
The journey to Eldoret happened on Saturday, with two KFS officers also on board.
At the referral hospital, the teenager underwent some tests and was given some injections before being admitted.
“The medics at MTRH were shocked to see my seriously ill son still in handcuffs and instructed me to look for the officers who came and uncuffed him. His hands were already swollen,” she said.
Later, the teenager developed breathing difficulties and was taken for a CT scan before being taken to the ICU as his condition worsened.
Even with her son now fighting for his life in the ICU, the KFS officers stayed at the facility until the hospital staff had asked them to leave.
The five KFS officers have since been arrested and arraigned in connection with the student's death.
Acting on behalf of the OCPD Eldama Ravine, Felician Nafula confirmed the arrests, adding that the case had been transferred to the DCI for further proceedings.
Following the incident, angry residents of Maji Mazuri staged protests on Tuesday while accusing KFS officers of persistent harassment, particularly targeting women, children, and the elderly.
“The mother of the deceased had requested his son to bring him some money the officers had demanded for, but on arriving at the forest, the boy found his mother being harassed, which prompted him to intervene,” claimed one Ms Susan Wacuka.
“I visited the deceased at Eldama Ravine Hospital and his situation was very bad. Shockingly, he could not speak but was still in handcuffs. How inhuman were the officers for them to beat up that young man to death?" she posed.
Maji Mazuri MCA Solomon Kuria expressed concern over cases of violence by the KFS officers on area residents, noting that they target individuals collecting firewood in the forest.
The MCA called for a thorough probe into the incident and for the suspects to face appropriate legal consequences for their actions.
