Gatundu: Police say man who died in custody choked after swallowing bhang
By Lutta Njomo, October 11, 2025A day after residents of Gatundu South staged protests demanding justice for a 30-year-old man who died in police custody, the area security officers have come out to explain what transpired.
Speaking to a section of the press on Saturday, October 11, 2025, Gatundu South Deputy County Commissioner (DCC) Florence Chege came out to absolve the area police officers from any wrongdoing.
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Chege detailed that Paul Njuguna was not strangled as claimed by the irate Gatundu South residents. She insisted that preliminary postmortem results indicated that Njuguna choked after swallowing bhang that was found hidden in a nylon paper.
The DCC further claimed that the recovered swallowed bhang was kept as an exhibit.
“The results are out, and they have clearly shown that the suspect swallowed the bhang before the police even conducted a search. During the postmortem, the bhang was recovered and is now an exhibit as investigations continue,” Chege told a section of the press.
Message to residents
While assuring residents that the exhibit will be used in the ongoing probe, she called on them to allow the process to proceed and report any cases of police misconduct to the relevant authorities.
The Deputy County Commissioner also warned police officers against using excessive force while arresting Kenyans.
By the time of this publication, the National Police Service (NPS) had not issued an official communication regarding the matter.
Residents account
The DCC account of what transpired differs from what the irate residents stated. The residents who threatened to set the police station ablaze accused the officers of beating Njuguna to death after arresting him in possession of bhang.
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“They beat people anyhow whenever they arrest you. This is how badly they mistreated me,” one of the residents narrated.
Another resident, James Karanja, accused the officers of using excessive force during the arrest.
“That man was arrested by the police, and they did not even allow him to touch the ground. They beat him mercilessly instead of taking him to court,” Karanja told journalists.