Machakos family seeks answers after son dies in police cell
A family from Mwala, Machakos County, has urged the government to conduct a probe in to the death of their son, who died last week inside a police cell in Makutano police post.
The family says that their son was arrested and were later informed that he had committed suicide inside the cell.
Susan Makau, the mother of the late Bonventure Mutuku, said her son was arrested on Wednesday last week and detained in a cell for four days without being taken to court to be charged.
He was arrested for stealing Ksh400.
Makau said that she was called on Sunday at around 3.30 pm by police and told he had committed suicide.
She then went to Makutano police post and found her son's body lying on the ground.
Upon asking why the body had been moved, Makau said she was not given a satisfactory response.
"There was no evidence of suicide as he was lying on the floor of the cell," she said.
According to the OB report, Mutuku committed suicide by hanging his shirt on the roof and no suicide note was left behind.
Joseph Napeiyan, the Machakos county commander of police, confirmed the incident but said that according to the police OB report, the deceased was arrested on Friday and not on Wednesday as the family alleged. He added that the OB number was 09/24/03/2023 and that the suspect was awaiting to be taken to court on Monday but committed suicide inside the cell on March 26.
He added that investigations were going on to establish the cause of death.
The family claims they were not allowed to witness the postmortem and were told to wait outside as as the pathologist, DCI and IPOA officers witnessed the exercise.
After the postmortem, Makau said she was told to wait for results of samples taken for further investigations.
Mutuku leaves behind a wife and three sons.
The preliminary report from the postmortem indicated the cause of death to be suicide.
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