Emotions high as Kianjokoma brothers are remembered in Embu

Emotions ran high on Monday during the first memorial service for the two slain Kianjokoma brothers in Kianjokoma, Embu County.

The brothers, who were college students, died at the hands of police last year.

Tears flowed as relatives and friends laid wreaths on the grave where Emmanuel Mutura, 19, and Benson Njiru, 22, were laid to rest in separate coffins.

The late brothers' mother, Catherine Wawira, almost fainted as she laid her wreath on the grave in honour of her sons and she had to be assisted away by sympathisers.

A family member, Felix Nthiga, recounted how the two met their deaths and demanded justice.

"We lost our children and they will never come back to life. The murder case is still pending in court and what we are asking is justice to be done," said Mr Nthiga.

The family said since the gruesome murders, they had been in great agony and life had been difficult for them.

"Following the brutal murder of our sons, things have not been the same for us. We hope that what befell our children will never happen to any other family," added Mr Nthiga, their uncle and the family spokesperson. 

Speaker after speaker condemned the murders.

Independent Medico Legal Unit (IMLU) executive director Peter Kiama said the case was one of the starkest examples of police use of excessive and arbitrary force in the enforcement of law.

He said the murders violated the right to life under the Constitution that provides that no person shall be derived of life intentionally.

Mr Kiama demanded an expedited trial of the officers involved.

He called for accelerated investigations into the alleged extrajudicial executions of the duo for the culprits to be punished according to the law.

The deaths of the two brothers were still fresh in the minds of family members and residents.

They were found dead, one kilometre from their home, after being arrested by police for allegedly violating a curfew in Kianjokoma town.

The two had dreams that they never lived to achieve.

Njiru, a student at Don-Bosco Technology Training Institute in Nairobi, wanted to become an engineer, while his younger brother, Mutura who was at Kabarak University, was working hard to become a lawyer. Their lives were cut short on August1 last year.

They were on holiday when they met their deaths. They were admired by relatives and friends due to their hard work and humility and this explains why violent demonstrations broke out when news went round that they were no longer alive.

"Our brothers were well behaved, hardworking and related well with everyone. During holidays, they used to babysit, pick coffee and tea and run their own business. We shall surely miss them," recalled Anne Nyaga, one of their relatives.

Residents described the brothers as friendly and social. They loved the young men so much that they kept vigil throughout the night one day before the burial to pray and to show solidarity with the family.

Despite being from a well-off family, the brothers interacted well with residents. Residents even cracked jokes with the brothers as they bought meat from their butchery, which they usually operated during long holidays.

The two were known to be honest people and treated residents with respect.

The two brothers disappeared on a Sunday after they were rounded up by police in Kianjokoma for allegedly breaking a curfew imposed by the government as a Covid-19 containment measures, only for their lifeless bodies to be found lying at the Embu Level Five Hospital mortuary.

They were on their way home after closing their pork butchery in town when they stumbled upon officers enforcing the curfew. They were bundled into a government vehicle with nine other suspects and whisked off towards the Manyatta Police Station.

Two days later, they were found dead with serious injuries believed to have been inflicted by the attackers.

Postmortem examinations revealed that the victims succumbed to head and rib injuries inflicted with a blunt object.

The family claimed the duo were brutally murdered by the police and demanded justice.

But police claimed that the brothers succumbed to injuries after they jumped from a moving police car and landed on a tarmac road at around 10.30pm.

The officers explained that they were enforcing the curfew when they came across the brothers and seized them.

But as the brothers were being ferried to the police station, the police said, they jumped out of the vehicle while it was in motion down a hill without the knowledge of the officers.

When the officers arrived at the station, they realised the brothers were missing and went back to look for them.

They found them lying on the side of a road with serious head injuries.

"When the officers found the two suspects, they called their scene of crime colleagues and together they took them to Embu Level Five Hospital, where they were ascertained to be dead upon [being] medically examined and then taken to the mortuary," one of the officers said.

However, the family and leaders dismissed the police theory, insisting that the victims were brutally murdered and secretly taken to the mortuary to cover up the evidence.

When the brothers went missing, family members embarked on a thorough search and when they failed to find them, they reported the matter to the Manyatta Police Station, where officers seemed not to be cooperative.

"On arrival at the station, the officers took us round without telling us where our sons were. We were not happy at all," a relative said.
Later, family members decided to check in the mortuary following a tip-off and were shocked to find the brothers lying dead.

The family also claimed the two were robbed of their money and phones during the arrest and demanded an explanation from the police.