Police officers in Thika town, Kiambu County are on the spot after shooting an unarmed young man believed to have been going home from work on Tuesday night.
Parents of George Kimani Irungu, a 22-year-old man who was gunned down by police on patrol now want justice for their son who they claim was erroneously shot.
Kimani is said to have been in the company of two other young men, one of whom was arrested while the other managed to escape arrest.
The escapee (name withheld) told journalists that police shot Kimani in the hand and chest before they hurriedly rushed his body to the mortuary.
“I arrived here after the incident and enquired how things turned out but I was shockingly told that Kimani had been killed but the whereabouts of his body were unknown,” the escapee said.
Maureen Wanjiru Irungu, a sister to the deceased man said she received a call urging her to help trace his brother who had reportedly been shot by people believed to be police officers.
She protested that after missing him at the shooting scene, police failed to disclose his whereabouts when she sought to gather details at the Thika police station.
“Police took me in circles when I sought to know the whereabouts of my brother. In fact, they all convened a meeting at the station to discuss the matter which to us is evident that he was mistakenly shot. My brother was not arrested with a weapon and had even surrendered to the police when they ordered him to stop. Why they killed him and left the one they arrested is a mystery to us,” regretted Wanjiru.
Peter Irungu Muiruri who is the deceased person’s father on his side said he received a call from a parent who instructed him to trace his son who had been shot in Thika.
“I asked my daughter to help with the tracing since she was already in Thika. It is sad that it happened that the information going rounds was true. He had been killed and rushed to the mortuary without any statement being made at the station,” narrated Irungu.
In what has renewed anger over police brutality, a pervasive issue in high crime areas such as the sprawling Kiandutu slums, Matharau and Gachagi villages, Irungu regretted that his son was ‘killed like an animal’ despite being a law-abiding Kenyan.
But security managers within the busy town that has been fronted to attain a city status claim the deceased person was a criminal suspect who fired at police when they descended on him.
Thika Deputy County Commissioner (DCC) Mbogo Mathioya told journalists that sleuths shot one man and recovered mobile phones believed to have been stolen from innocent victims.
Mathioya said the man was part of a 3-man gang attacking members of the public along Cascade Premier-Thika Prison Road who attempted to escape police arrest.
Speaking in his office, the DCC revealed that police were tipped off by members of the public before they deployed a rapid response team who descended on the occupants of the motorbike said to have been questionably making rounds within the town.
“We sent our officers immediately who descended on the suspects. They were found having three machetes, the motorbike they were using and four mobile phones suspected to have been snatched from innocent victims. We are doing everything possible to eliminate criminals from our streets to ensure Kenyans go about their daily activities without fear,” said Mathioya.
With Thika town being one of the leading towns in terms of the bodaboda population, the DCC called motorcyclists to align themselves in SACCOs for better identification besides digitizing their operations to facilitate the weeding out of criminals masquerading as Boda Boda operators.
The latest killing incident comes a day after Interior Cabinet Secretary Kithure Kindiki put on notice criminal gun-toting criminals believed to have been terrorizing Kenyans saying the government will crash them.
In a statement to the small armed groups that have been mugging Kenyans in most towns, the new Interior CS said the government will be ruthless to any person found to be destabilizing the peace of the citizenry.
