When 24-year-old Julia Wangui Wamaitha appeared before a Nanyuki court last Tuesday after being arrested alongside 110 youths over the Saba Saba protests, she appeared to be in good health.
But 48 hours later, she was dead — having collapsed at the Nanyuki Remand Prison, where she was being held after failing to raise a cash bail of Sh50,000 to secure her freedom.
After drifting into a coma on Tuesday night, the remandee did not wake up again and died on Thursday afternoon while undergoing surgery at a private hospital, where medics were trying to stop haemorrhaging (bleeding) in her brain.
Julia was first rushed to the Nanyuki Teaching and Referral Hospital in the early hours of Wednesday before being moved to Nanyuki Cottage Hospital for a delicate head operation by a consultant neurosurgeon.
As the family strives to come to terms with the sudden loss of their kin arising from Monday’s Saba Saba protests, questions linger about what could have caused the bleeding in the brain. Was she assaulted? And if so, by whom and where?
Police officers have distanced themselves from any accusations that an assault on the inmate occurred in the police cells or during her arrest.
Ms Susan Rienye, Julia Wamaitha's grandmother speaking to the media following the death of the 24-year-old woman at Nanyuki GK Prison.
Photo credit: Mwangi Ndirangu | Nation Media Group
National Police Service (NPS) spokesperson Michael Muchiri said the suspect was arraigned on Tuesday to answer charges of malicious damage to property. After taking a plea, she was remanded at Nanyuki Women’s Prison.
“While in remand, she was taken ill and admitted to Nanyuki Cottage Hospital, and according to reports from prison authorities, she passed away on Thursday,” noted Mr Muchiri.
National Police Service Spokesperson Michael Nyaga Muchiri in his office at Jogoo House, Nairobi on July 2, 2025.
Photo credit: Wilfred Nyangaresi | Nation Media Group
A senior police officer at the Laikipia County Police Headquarters said that if Julia was indeed assaulted, it must have happened within the prison walls.
“The suspect was in good health from the time of the arrest up to when she was arraigned. If an assault had occurred at the police station, she could have raised the matter in court and requested to be taken to the hospital,” said the officer, who declined to be named due to the sensitivity of the matter.
As the family and investigators wait for the post-mortem to establish the circumstances leading to the death of the young mother of two, fingers are pointing at the prison authorities. The big question remains: what caused the brain haemorrhage? Did she fall and hit her head, or was she assaulted by a fellow inmate or prison officers?
On Saturday, prison authorities at Nanyuki Prison remained mum, saying an official press statement would be issued by their headquarters in Nairobi later in the day.
An X-ray report (head scan) seen by Sunday Nation, which was conducted on Wednesday, indicates “there was compression of the left lateral ventricle with sulcal effacement’, which would indicate serious brain trauma.
Julia’s family spokesperson has accused the prison authorities of complicity in her death, pointing to a lack of cooperation in attending to the patient from the time she collapsed while in prison.
Ms Susan Rienye, Julia’s grandmother, said in a media interview that prison authorities were trying to push a narrative that Julia had an underlying health condition that may have led to her death.
“On Wednesday morning, Nanyuki Prison authorities called Julia’s father and tried to persuade him to indicate that his daughter had an underlying condition. But the father was categorical that the only condition she had was duodenal ulcers, which medically cannot cause brain haemorrhage,” said Ms Rienye.
She also accused the prison authorities of delaying medical care, even after doctors at the Nanyuki Teaching and Referral Hospital classified the situation as an emergency.
“We spent over eight hours at the Nanyuki Teaching and Referral Hospital as prison authorities worked on clearance to transfer the patient to a private hospital. Probably, her life would have been saved if the prison and hospital authorities had treated the case as an emergency,” said Ms Rienye.
The family is also blaming the police officers for arresting Julia and using excessive force in dealing with youthful protesters. They claim she was heading home at around 6:30 pm on Monday when she was accosted and arrested by police officers.
Incidentally, Julia was arrested just a few metres from the spot where a Form Three student, James Wambugu, was shot by police in Likii Estate and later died while undergoing treatment.
Youths from Likii Estate, where Julia resided, have vowed to hold demonstrations in Nanyuki Town on Monday over her death.
