Family rejects police suicide account in Kenol station death
According to the officer, Mwangi allegedly “sneaked” into the police station, entered one office, then moved into another, locked himself inside, and first attempted to hang himself using a phone charging cable, which broke.
The family of a man found dead inside Kenol Police Station in Murang’a has dismissed the police version that he died by suicide.
The deceased, 35-year-old Stephen Mwangi, was discovered hanging in the station’s operations room on August 5.
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His father, John Muiruri, who identified the body at Murang’a Level Five Hospital mortuary, rejected the police explanation.
“I do not buy the police fairy tale that my son hanged himself. Even if he were to, not in the plot that the police are spinning,” Muiruri said as quoted by the Daily Nation.
Muiruri, from Njora village in Kigumo Constituency, said his son had been missing for a week before the death.
“We thought he would return, as he had a habit of leaving and later coming back,” he explained.
On Monday, Muiruri received a call from the village elder asking him to go to Kenol Police Station.
There, a Directorate of Criminal Investigations officer informed him that they had identified his son’s body.
“The officer also shared a version of the events that made me feel like laughing despite my grief,” Muiruri said.
According to the officer, Mwangi allegedly “sneaked” into the police station, entered one office, then moved into another, locked himself inside, and first attempted to hang himself using a phone charging cable, which broke.
He then used a computer charging cable tied to window grills to hang himself.
When Muiruri asked to see where his son died, he was told it was the operations room, where anti-riot weapons are stored.
“I asked how such a critical office was unmanned and accessible. The officer replied, ‘It happens, sometimes it happens,’” the father said.
He also expressed suspicion after officers who took him to the mortuary offered to cover the costs of the post-mortem examination and burial.
The family declined the free DCI post-mortem and will instead hire a private pathologist. They also plan to seek assistance from human rights organisations.
Muiruri called on the Independent Police Oversight Authority to conduct a thorough investigation into the death.
Murang’a South police boss Charity Karimi said preliminary investigations suggest that Mwangi died by suicide.
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