10 Murang’a chiefs risk arrest over Chania River deaths

Ten government administrators from Murang’a County now risk arrest, prosecution and sacking over allegations of torturing and drowning two young men in a river.

Gatanga Sub-County Director of Criminal Investigations (DCI) John Kanda told Nation.Africa that he has forwarded the case file to the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (ODPP) in Murang'a for perusal and further advice.

"I do not want to comment broadly on this matter since the file is at its very nascent stage. But should we get the nod to escalate, we will arrest, arraign and prosecute with an intention to win a conviction," Mr Kanda said.

According to witness statements that Nation.Africa had accessed when the matter was at investigations stage, the 10 officers -- two chiefs and eight assistant chiefs from Kakuzi/Mitubiri -- were on patrol on May 9, 2021 when they confronted Nicholas Maithya, 20, and Asman John Kamau, 18, along River Chania in Rubiro village.

Handcuffed

They are alleged to have proceeded to handcuff them, beat them up before pushing them into the swollen River Chania where they drowned.

Their bodies were recovered from the river after an eight-day search.

A post-mortem conducted on the bodies revealed multiple injury marks as well as marks on hands that appeared to support the cuffing claims.

The two are said to have died of strangulation owing to restricted flow of oxygen into their brains.

Ithanga Police Station had attempted to counter the narrative of the eye witnesses by telling the media that the two youngsters were criminals who were being sought for making chang’aa along the banks of River Chania.

The police narrative that was filed in the digital reporting portal of the National Police Service was that the two had been confronted at a chang’aa den and in their attempt to evade arrest, jumped into the swollen river with the hope of swimming to safety.

Not accompanied by police

But Mr Kanda had told the Nation that in recording the statements from the 10 officers, it had come out clearly that they had gone on patrol without being accompanied by police officers as should be the case.

He said that the chiefs said they did not seek police assistance for fear that they (police) would leak information to brewers of illicit liquor.

Already, five eye witnesses have written their statements over the matter and it is hoped that the ODPP will give the go ahead for the suspects to be taken to court.

One of the witnesses says the incident happened around 4pm on the fateful day while the victims, who were in the company of seven others, were fishing along the banks of River Chania in Rubiro village.

“We ran out of worms to use as baits on our fishing rods and the two went to higher ground to hunt for some more. They were gone for 10 minutes when we heard a commotion and upon moving up to know what was happening, we saw the two handcuffed by the officers,” he writes.

The witness adds that the other fishing colleagues ran away but he remained behind to inquire why the two had been arrested.

“The officers were now beating them, asking them to produce the chang’aa that they were brewing. I told the officers that we were only fishing and we had nothing to do with chang’aa. One of the officers was beating the two handcuffed men with a baton. Another one took a stone and hit Kamau on the back of his head and the force pushed him to a free fall into the river, dragging Maithya with him,” he wrote.

In his statement, he says he jumped into the river to try and rescue the two but was overwhelmed by the waves.

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