Embu brothers died the day they started a butchery business

The two slain Kianjokoma brothers Benson Njiru and Emmanuel Mutura were no idlers.

Despite coming from an economically stable family, the young men believed in generating their own income. They ran a butchery business but as fate would have it, they never got to enjoy the proceeds of their first day at work.

While on holiday before their deaths after being arrested for violating the night-time curfew, the two had prevailed upon their father, Mr John Ndwiga, to set up a business for them.

Mr Ndwiga rented a pork butchery at Mbui Njeru market, four kilometres from his home for his sons.

On August 1, the brothers embarked on selling meat in their butchery to raise pocket money. In the evening after a good day of sales, they cleaned the premises and closed the business.

On arriving at Kianjokoma town some 200 metres from home, they met police officers who were enforcing curfew laws. They were arrested and bundled into a police vehicle together with nine other suspects.

They were whisked off towards Manyatta Police Station but two days later, their bodies were found at Embu Referral Hospital Mortuary.

Interviews with family members indicate they also set up the business to help their father pay their school fees.

Njiru studied at Don-Bosco Technology Training Institute in Nairobi where he pursued an engineering course while Mutura was a law student at Kabarak University.

A family Spokesman, Felix Nthiga Njagi said the butchery closed soon after the demise of the brothers.

“They never lived to see their business take off. They desired to empower themselves and relieve their father some of the financial burdens but their dreams were shattered," he said.

“Residents loved our sons and when they opened business the first day, they flocked there and the sales were high. But the same day they started operating the business, they were murdered," said Mr Njagi, an uncle to the victims.

The family claimed their sons were robbed of Sh15,000 and phones.

 "We found them in the mortuary without the cash as well as phones. Police should explain who took the cash and phones from the deceased persons," said the brothers’ uncle.

Some of the neighbours told Nation.Africa that they were shocked by the deaths of the two brothers. Reports of the tragic deaths rattled the usually busy Kianjokoma market with angry residents rioting to demand justice.

The protests paralysed business in the usually busy town for two days. During the demonstrations, a police vehicle was set ablaze and a man killed.

Mr Ndwiga described his sons as good people who didn't deserve such a painful death.

"I have lost everything. Since my children died I have known no peace and those responsible for the death of my sons should not go unpunished," he told mourners during a funeral service held at Kianjokoma Primary School.

Already six police officers who were on duty when the brothers went missing have been arrested and arraigned in court.

A post-mortem revealed that the brothers succumbed to head and rib injuries inflicted with a blunt object.