Uniformed killers on the loose?

By Amos Kareithi

The killers used a three-month-old baby as a bait then sent a 16-year-old schoolgirl to fetch a police gun that was used for the job.

However, they had underestimated the resilience of two boys who were watching their heinous actions from a distance.

Peter Karanja shows the spot where Mburu was finally shot inside St Mary Girls’ Secondary School, Thigio, where the AP base was located. Witnesses say the stones were put after the shooting to obliterate the pool of blood. Photos/Amos Kareithi/Standard

"I heard a loud explosion. Then I saw Mburu hurled up and then landed on his back, his eyes staring at the sky. Both of his hands were still in handcuffs. He screamed loudly as he writhed on the grass. His entire body was bloody," Njinu explains looking shaken.

It was at this point that the boy fled towards Thigio Primary School where they met Peter Karanja, Mburu’s uncle. The 62-year-old, who is the watchman at the school, told CCI how he rushed to the base and found Mburu writhing in pain.

"Mama, nimandatha na ndiu kiria mandathira. (Uncle, they have shot me but I do not know the reason)" Karanja recalls Mburu lamenting.

An enraged Karanja demanded to know from the police officers why they had shot his nephew.

He recalls one of the officers poking him with the gun, but at that time he was too angry too be scared.

Fearing more bloodshed, a villager, Hannah Mugure, nudged Karanja away from the scene.

"I Left Mburu lying on a pool of blood. At the time I did not know his condition was serious," Karanja says.

An officer who had been drawn to the scene by the explosive gunshot was told that Mburu had tried to attack the police officers with a panga in a bid to flee.

"The chief assigned two police officers to arrest Mburu in the house he was hiding. At first, I am told he resisted but was finally taken to the patrol base," the bar owner says of the incident.

"My wife called me 20 minutes after Mburu had been arrested and told me that he had been shot for trying to flee. Later I was informed that he had died," he adds, insisting that Mburu took off with Sh12,000 on December 12, last year.

Muzzling people’s voice

Karanja says he did not owe Mburu any money arguing that the deceased had a debt of Sh9,000 before he took off.

Three days after he was killed, Thigio Location chief, Wallace Mbugua, banned all public gatherings effectively stopping the grieving relatives from holding evening prayers or meetings.

"To all Thigio residents. Under the powers conferred upon me by cap 128 Laws of Kenya, I do hereby suspend all public meetings of any kind with immediate effect. This has been provoked by the current state of affairs in Thigio," reads the notice.

The notice, copied to Kiambu West DC, Ndeiya District Officer, OCS Tigoni as well as Resident Magistrate Limuru, warned that anybody found organising a gathering or meeting was ‘guilty of an offence.’

When CCI called the Chief, he retorted that he was not responsible for the shooting.

"I am just a mere chief. I am not a commander of the AP. Go and ask the District Officer. I did not bar the mourners from grieving," Mbugua added.

Kiambu West, DC, Esther Maina, said she was aware of the shooting but declined to give more information advising us to call later after getting facts. But later our calls went unanswered.

Hopes of relatives that the killers would be brought to book have been dashed by the transfer of the two APs whom we cannot name for legal reasons.

Kiambu West OCPD Samuel Mukindia told CCI that no suspects were likely to be arrested in connection with Mburu’s death as it was being treated as ‘a sudden death’.

"His boss reported that he had run away with Sh13,000. When the youth was spotted in Thigio, the complainants showed the OB number and some APs went to the house," the OCPD explained further contradicting the amount alleged to have been stolen by Mburu.

Mukindia said Mburu resisted arrest and instead attacked the law enforcers with a knife and had to be subdued by being shot as he attempted to evade arrest.

When we informed the OCPD that Mburu had been shot at the patrol base and not in the house where he was allegedly hiding, he appeared shocked, but insisted he was giving what the records showed.

Neighbours at the house where Mburu was arrested said they had not witnessed any shooting. The house where the AP fetched Mburu has been deserted after its occupants migrated.

"As you can see, there are no bloodspots here. Nothing, not even a spent cartridge has been recovered from here. Mburu was killed elsewhere. The police led him out of the house in handcuffs," a neighbour who declined to be named told CCI.

"We have not arrested anybody. We have opened an inquest," the OCPD said. Although the bar owner had recorded statements with the police, no investigator has contacted any of the witnesses CCI talked to and the family is worried that Mburu’s killers may go scot-free.

NB:* The minors’ names have been changed to protect their identity for security reasons.