Police shot my friend and ordered me to eat his brains

By Alex Kiprotich"I was in the business of buying and selling cows. On that fateful morning, Chemorei called me that he was selling his cow because he needed money urgently to pay school fees for his son who had been sent home," he says.Abubakar Latama. He says the officers seemed to derive gratification from subjecting him to inhuman acts. Photo: Alex Kiprotich/StandardAbubakar says after handing over Sh8,500, they decided to head where the cow was tethered, but this short trip was cut short by the arrival of police officers who surrounded the compound and ordered them to sit down."We were ordered to sit down. Shortly I was told to lie head down, as my friend was moved away from me," he said.The 40-year-old said the officers interrogated him, wanting to know who he was and what he was doing in the compound."I told them I was a businessman buying and selling cows and had come to buy one from Chemorei," he said.He said the officers frisked him and took away Sh60,000 he had in his pockets before beating him up."Some used their gun butts to hit me, while others squeezed my genitals until blood came out," he says.He says as they were beating him up, he recalls hearing other officers demanding a key from Chemorei. After sometime he heard gunshots, which lasted for about ten minutes."I knew I would also be killed because I heard Chemorei pleading for his life saying they had got what they wanted," he said.He said after the guns went silent, he was ordered to stand up and he saw a gory sight of his friend – his head had been ripped apart and blood was splattered everywhere.Medical expensesHe says the officers, holding him by the waistline of his pants, dragged him to where Chemorei’s body lay. They ordered him to scoop his brain from his gaping head, and ordered him to eat. Abubakar says he knelt over Chemorei’s body and did as the officers had ordered, "Tumia!"He says he thought the officers wanted him to scoop it and place them near where the body lay."I did not understand what he meant until one placed a gun nozzle on my forehead and said I should eat it," he said."I slowly opened my mouth and emptied the contents into my mouth. I felt nauseated, but with the gun pointed at me, I summoned the courage to swallow it. The officers, he said seemed to derive gratification from this. As he grimaced, they exchanged knowing glances and ordered him to do it quick or else they would shoot him like his friend."It was the most disgusting thing. But I had no option," he says, with a stammer. He says the officers were not yet done with him as they ordered him to lift the body of Chemorei. "They told me to lift the body and when they realised I could not they gave me two other officers and we carried it to the police Land Rover, which had been parked at the gate," he says.Abubakar, who has become impotent because of the police torture, says inside the Land Rover, he was forced to lie on Chemorei’s body. He was then covered with a blanket."The experience was harrowing. Something out of this world. When we arrived at Kitale Police Station, I was told to alight. I looked like a demon, everywhere there was blood on me," he said.He says had he known what was going to happen he would not have gone to his neighbour’s home."It was my first time at his home though we used to meet in town and chat with Chemorei," he says.Since then, he says life has never been normal with him. At times he finds himself talking to himself and avoiding where there are people and vehicles."I think he is traumatised by what he went through. He is not the man I knew when we married," said Saujed Ndiema the first wife of Abubakar.Saujed who has nine children with Abubakar says they have come to terms with what he went through.She said at first it was not easy as everyone would avoid him because it is satanic to eat flesh of another human."Imagine what it means being referred to the wife of that man who ate someone’s brains. But people understand he would have been killed had he not obeyed what the police ordered," she says. Her children, Habib and Shanim, said they hope someday justice would be done. Abubakar has sold off most of his land and all his livestock to cater for medical expenses in the hope that his manhood could be restored, but has not been successful so far."This was part of my land," he says pointing to homesteads bordering his.

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