Fate has turned against a Kirinyaga man and his son who had accused the police of murdering their kin while under their custody.
The two Benson Muteru Gutu 64 and his son Edward Maina Muteru 35 were arraigned in a Kerugoya court where they denied murdering Elias Kinyua Muteru.
The late Kinyua is Muteru’s son and Maina’s elder brother.
Their arraignment came days after the office of the director of the public prosecution recommended their charges before a court of law for allegedly causing the death of Kinyua.
According to a police report recorded at the Kavote police patrol base in Gichugu, the deceased was taken to the police post in the morning hours of November 7, 2022, by his parents Benson Muteru, Emma Muthoni and his brother Edward Maina for allegedly causing a disturbance.
As he was being interrogated during noon hours, he is said to have developed chest complications hence speedily rushed to the nearby Kianyaga hospital where he later succumbed to injuries in the afternoon.
A few days later, the family held a protest outside the police post as they accused the police of the alleged murder further calling for speedy investigations.
Gichugu sub-county DCI boss Millicent Ochuka told the Star on the phone that postmortem results indicated the deceased had for a long time been exposed to mistreatment even before he was presented to the authorities.
She added that during D-day, the deceased was allegedly handcuffed by way of a rope and subjected to more beatings as he was being frog-marched to the police post by his family members.
It is suspected that the late Kinyua was often drunk, unruly and rude to his family over a suspected land row.
The DCI boss revealed that the deceased’s father had at first refused to cooperate with the relevant teams drawn from IPOA and medical departments over the autopsy of his late son.
“He kept postponing the matter for reasons only known to him. After some time though he accepted and the postmortem was carried out. The results showed that the deceased had sustained severe injuries in his body as a result of frequent beatings .”
Apart from suffering harassment, the deceased had also been denied food.
Ochuka said they later submitted the report of their investigations together with the autopsy findings to the office of the ODPP who later recommended that the two should be charged with murder.
The suspects are currently held at the Kerugoya GK prison after the court adjourned their case to February 9 when it will come up for mention.
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