Police accused of shielding suspects in Kiambu murders
Police officers arrive at a murder scene. Dozens of families in Kiambu County are crying for justice after their relatives were killed in a spate of attacks that police have failed to resolve. FILE PHOTO | NATION MEDIA GROUP
What you need to know:
- A suspect in the death of Ms Sarah Wambui has not been arrested, nor was he questioned.
- The man said she had collapsed and they took her to hospital in critical condition.
- A report by Dr Andrew Kanyi indicated that she had injuries in and around the neck that were consistent with strangulation.
- Kiambu police boss James Mugera said he was in meeting but promised to respond later.
Dozens of families in Kiambu County are crying for justice after their relatives were killed in a spate of attacks that police have failed to resolve.
For instance, Ms Sarah Wambui, 47, and her partner dropped her daughter home in Kiambaa Village at around 9pm on February 6 before proceeding to a local joint owned by the man.
“It was usual for him to drop us home but on weekends they would drop me and leave together,” recalled Ms Wambui’s daughter, 19-year-old Josephine Mungai.
“My mother would then come home later.”
That night, her mother did not return home.
Ms Wambui’s body was later found lying at Karuri Hospital.
Mr John Wamuiri, a brother of the deceased, said Ms Wambui was taken to the hospital past midnight by the lover, his watchman and a woman who works at his bar.
The man said she had collapsed and they took her to hospital in critical condition.
Their version of the day’s events however changed after hospital records showed the mother of three was dead before she was brought to the health facility and that an autopsy revealed that she was strangled.
A report by Dr Andrew Kanyi indicated that she had injuries in and around the neck that were consistent with strangulation.
The family now claims that the person who took her body to the hospital, and who is well known to them, knows who killed her.
But they said the suspect has not been arrested, nor was he questioned.
But this is one on the many cases police have been accused of failing to act on despite being provided with crucial leads.
Other notable cases include the murder of Ms Esther Njoki Kamweru, a Kiambu-based prominent businesswoman who ran Shaquel Hardware.
She was shot dead as she entered her compound in Kiambu Town in 2014.
CONSPIRED TO DEFEAT JUSTICE
Mr Francis Kinge from Ndumberi Village died in an August 24, 2014 accident along the Kiambu-Githiga road and a senior officer at the Kiambu Police Station allegedly conspired with the owner of the vehicle to defeat justice.
Mr Stephen Njenga, an official at the controversial Mbo-i-Kamiti land buying company, was shot dead at around 9am in November 17, 2012 at Kahoya on the Kwamaiko-Kiambu road as he drove to Nairobi but no one was arrested.
In the same year, Mr Stephen Mungai, a CDF committee member from Karia Village in Githunguri, was killed by a machete-wielding gang while heading home from a local bar.
Like many other cases, no one has been arrested in connection with his murder.
ABDUCTED THEN MURDERED
In 2010, Michael Mwaura, 70, a renowned Kiambu businessman, was abducted near at his gate at Ngegu Village in Kiambu Sub-County and his body later found in a thicket in Gitamaiyu on the Kiambu-Ruiru road.
Mr Paul Mwangi, a human rights activist from Githunguri, said police are to blame for either carrying out shoddy investigations or being compromised by the suspects.
Mr Mwangi said he has personally pursued various murder cases but always hit a dead end.
“I have petitioned all the highest offices in the country, trying to ensure suspects are brought to book, and apart from the usual promises nothing is done,” he said.
He claimed that there are more than 100 unsolved murder cases in the county.
Contacted, Kiambu police boss James Mugera said he was in meeting but promised to respond later. He had not by press time.
