Man killed days after release from custody

Mary Wangari weeps after her son John Githinji's body was retrieved from Karia Dam in Nyeri,o n November 30,2018. John Githinji, had surrendered at the Directorate of Criminal Investigations headquarters, in Nyeri in October, where he was released pending further investigations.

A family is demanding answers after their kin was found dead three weeks after he surrendered to police officers over links to the murder of a local chief in Nyeri County.

John ‘Mrefu’ Githinji, 42, and Joseph ‘Mo east’ Kangethe, 33, surrendered to police on October 22, accompanied by Muslim Human Rights (Muhuri) chairman Khelef Khalifa who said the two were living in fear.

Githinji was put in custody for a week but was released without charges being preferred against him. His wife Julia Wanjiku said the last time she saw him was on November 25 when he left to open his barber shop in Majengo.

“He had come home for the weekend because one of our children had just undergone initiation after completing KCPE examinations,” she said.

Wanjiku said that at the barber shop a client who owed Githinji Sh30 asked him to follow him to the Nyeri-Nairobi bus stage with a promise to pay Sh100.

“My husband followed his client and that was the last time he was seen. He did not come back home and after two days I reported the matter to police,” she said.

On Thursday she was informed that a body was recovered in a sack in a river. “I called my mother in law Maria Wangari (pictured) to accompany me to the police station and we were asked to go to the mortuary where we positively identified him,” Wanjiku said.

Nyeri Central OCPD, Paul Kuria, said the police received a report that Githinji was missing and after circulating the details they were informed that a body was recovered in Karia Dam.

Muhuri have condemned Githinji’s killing.