‘I almost died with Kitui CID boss Zebedeo Maina’

Amos Wanyamu Mathuku (right), the father of Daniel Nguma Wanyamu, with one of his sons at Kitui District Hospital, Monday. [PHOTO: PAUL MUTUA/STANDARD]

By PAUL MUTUA

KITUI; KENYA: A survivor of last Saturday’s incident in Kitui, in which a senior police officer was shot dead, has recounted his last moments with the slain detective Zebedeo Maina.

Daniel Nguma Wanyamu, a 27-year-old mechanic with Kitui Youth Polytechnic, said he was walking with his former collegemate George Kavindu Sua, when armed officers confronted them — coincidentally, it was the same time and place Maina met his death.

The two could just have been in the wrong place at the wrong time, but they paid a heavy price for that.

Speaking from his hospital bed at the Kitui District Hospital amid tight security from two armed police officers, Wanyamu said they were physically assaulted and he was shot in the thigh near Envy Nightclub.

He says while being attacked, they heard a gunshot and a man walking ahead of them growling in pain and shouting, “Si mniue tu kabisa badala ya kuniumiza (why not just kill me instead of wounding me!)!”

Wanyamu says they were subjected to beating when they tried to look at what was happening. They did not get a chance to see the faces of their attackers.

He says he heard one of the attackers ask, “Umefyatua yeye tayari ama bado (have you shot him or not?)?”

“We were bundled into a car boot and driven for almost an hour around the town. At some point I heard a woman ask in Kikuyu whether we had reached Neema Hospital.

“I only realised our attackers and captors were policemen when they took us to Kitui Police Station and reported at the reception that they had come with “mahabusu wapya” (new inmates – meaning suspects).

No criminal record

“I was bleeding but was taken to hospital after an hour in the cells. I have not seen my friend Sua since Saturday night and only hear he was rushed to Nairobi for further questioning,” said Wanyamu.

The young mechanic says he learnt in hospital that the man who was shot on the streets ahead of them was a senior police officer.

“I do not know why I was beaten, shot and kept under police custody yet I have no criminal record,” said an emotional Wanyamu.

This writer was denied a chance to take photos of Mr Wanyamu at the hospital Monday.

Speaking to The Standard on phone, Kitui County Commissioner Moffat Kangi described the circumstances in which Maina died as unclear. “For now let’s give detectives time to piece together the details.”

Maina was shot as he led a team of officers to rescue a five-and-a-half-year-old girl in Kitui town. The girl had been kidnapped from Nairobi.

Maina’s body was transferred from  the Kitui District Hospital mortuary on Sunday evening to the Kenyatta University morgue at the family’s request.