How police officers shot the son of senior cop on Saba Saba day

When 23-year-old James Wambugu Gachara woke up on Monday, July 7, he had no idea that it would be the last time he would walk out of his family’s compound alive.

He had little to worry about. His father is a senior detective.

It was a school day, and like any other, he packed his books and left early for Bingwa Secondary School in Nanyuki, where he was enrolled in Form Three.

James had recently returned to school after a prolonged academic break that followed a traumatic and near-fatal attack in 2022. At the time, he was working as a rider-for-hire and had borrowed his cousin’s motorbike to earn a bit of money for his upkeep.

According to his family members, one evening, he picked up what appeared to be regular passengers, not knowing they were criminals posing as clients. After a short distance, the men turned on him. They attacked him viciously, stole the motorbike, and left him for dead by the roadside.

He was later found unconscious, bloodied, and barely breathing, and rushed to the hospital in critical condition. The attack left him with serious physical injuries and emotional trauma. Recovery was long and painful, and he had to put his education on hold.

But all that hope of full recovery came crumbling down on July 7, when a bullet fired from trigger-happy anti-riot police officers fired live rounds, hitting him in the process.

That day, there were no demonstrations anywhere near the school. 

At around 4:30 pm, James left school as usual. His route home took him past the Nanyuki Law Courts, along Simba Road—a stretch not far from the Likii centre. It was here, in broad daylight, that his path crossed with a bullet.

A video now widely circulated on social media shows uniformed police officers firing live rounds towards a group of young men. There was no visible threat, no chaos, just officers discharging weapons at civilians. In the background of the video, a figure stumbles and collapses. That figure, the family later confirmed with heartbreaking certainty, was James.

He had been shot; he fell to the ground alone, bleeding and unarmed. The police did not stop to help. Strangers nearby called for help, and Red Cross paramedics responded, rushing him to Nanyuki Teaching and Referral Hospital.

Later that evening, at around 6:30 pm, James’s mother received a phone call from a stranger using her son’s phone.

The caller explained that James had been shot and had shared her number before losing consciousness. In a panic, she and James’s father rushed to the hospital. But upon arrival, they were not allowed in. Hospital staff told them that emergency procedures were ongoing and that they would have to wait.

From outside, James’s father saw his son being wheeled toward the ICU on a stretcher, his body limp, his shirt bloodstained.

The staff assured him that doctors were doing all they could and asked him to wait until James stabilised. But that moment never came. Hours later, at around 3 am on Tuesday, the family was told that James had succumbed to his injuries. When the father was finally allowed to see his son, he placed his hand on James's chest. The body was still. James was gone.

James’s elder brother, Robert Mwiti Kiriinya, sat with his hands clasped tightly. He has repeated the events of that day more times than he can count, but the pain never dulled.

“James was not part of any protest,” Robert says, his eyes fixed on the ground.

“There were no demonstrations anywhere near the school. He went to class, finished his day, and left for home. That’s all. He still had his bag. He wasn’t shouting, wasn’t throwing anything, wasn’t part of a crowd. He was just a student walking home. It’s still hard to understand how something so normal ended like this. One minute, he was full of life. The next, a bullet had taken him from us,” he added.

Robert remembers James as more than just a younger brother—he was the family’s symbol of persistence.

Another of James’s brothers, Anderson Kirimi, speaks slowly, like someone still trying to wrap his head around the loss.

James' brothers say the pain of losing him is made worse by the fact that no one has taken responsibility. Only silence.

“We are not asking for miracles, we are asking for accountability. Someone pulled that trigger. Someone aimed that gun. And now James is gone. That can’t just go unpunished," Anderson said.

Following James’s tragic death, a postmortem examination was conducted by a team of pathologists from the Independent Medico-Legal Unit (IMLU), including forensic expert Dr Peter Ndegwa. 

The autopsy results revealed that James had suffered a catastrophic gunshot wound from a single, high-velocity bullet that entered his body through the pelvic region and exited through the lower left side.

The bullet, according to Dr Ndegwa, caused massive internal bleeding and trauma. It severed multiple blood vessels and tore through both the small and large intestines. The damage was consistent with a close-range discharge from a high-powered firearm, leaving no possibility of survival.

“The gunshot was hemorrhagic, causing catastrophic internal damage. Although surgeons attempted to intervene, the internal bleeding was too extensive to control. The trajectory and exit wound clearly point to a high-velocity, close-range shot," said Dr. Ndegwa.

Grace Wangechi Kahuri, the Executive Director at IMLU, reiterated the findings and called for urgent accountability. She confirmed that the bullet pierced vital organs, making medical efforts futile.

Despite doctors doing everything possible to save him, it was not possible. We are demanding transparent investigations, and we urge the authorities to refrain from using excessive force on unarmed civilians," she said.