Police demanded Sh50, 000 before killing bhang suspect

Sammy Otieno (right) with his wife Rose Awour during an interview at home in Ponda Mali Estate in Nakuru town on August 28, 2018. [Kipsang Joseph/Standard]

A family has accused police officers of killing a man because he failed to pay a bribe of Sh50,000.

Three officers allegedly arrested David Sewe at Pondamali estate in Mwariki on Sunday with 11 rolls of bhang valued at Sh220 and took him to Kasarani Police Post.

Mr Sewe, 36, whose body is lying at the Nakuru County mortuary, was moved to the Central Police Station, where he was allegedly shot by an officer.

Rose Awuor yesterday said her brother called her husband, Sammy Otieno, at around 8pm and asked to talk to her. She said Sewe told her he had been arrested and the officers were threatening to kill him. “My brother asked me to rush to Kasarani Police Post, where he had been booked, with Sh50,000 to secure his freedom.”

She said a second call was made through Sewe’s phone at around 8.40pm. An officer told her that she had only 10 minutes or she would regret it. She went to the police post, but was told her brother had been transferred.

“I went to the Central Police Station and asked for the arresting officers. One of the three called me by name, ‘Rose, you are here. Where is the Sh50,000’?”

She told them that she only had Sh6, 000 and requested to speak to her brother. She was escorted to the cells where she found Sewe, who had been beaten. One of the officers, she claimed, cocked his gun and told her that was her brother’s last day.

Beat Sewe

Ms Awuor claimed the officers continued to beat Sewe in her presence before leaving for a nearby canteen.

“I followed them, trying to find out what they were really up to. They said they wanted Sh50, 000,” she said, adding that she decided to call her mother to help.

Her husband, who had been left at home, said his wife called to tell him that the officers had said they would kill Sewe. “I informed my mother-in-law and she said she could not leave home as it was late,” said Mr Otieno.

He said he and his wife went to the police station on Monday morning, but did not find Sewe. The officers, he said, called his name several times and told them he could not be traced.

Thinking that Sewe might have been arraigned, Otieno and Awuor went to the law courts.

“We waited at the court cells, but we did not spot him. I was later allowed into the cells, but he was not there,” Otieno said.

He said the family went back to the police station at around 2pm and the OCS informed them that Sewe had been killed and that the officer involved had been arrested.

“The OCS told us Sewe had been taken to the station by three police officers and was booked, but one officer took him out and shot him in the neck at the station gate,” Otieno said.

The OCS allegedly asked them to go to the mortuary to identify the body. Nakuru Police Commandant Hassan Barua said the matter was being investigated.