Kenyan mother says son assaulted by UK police is mentally ill

A Kenyan mother whose son was captured on video being clobbered by UK police says she was trying to get him treatment for a mental illness when the incident took place.

In an interview with the Nation, the woman said she had called for an ambulance to take her son to hospital but that police arrived instead.

A recording of the September 21 incident at Colchester town in Essex, the UK, raised public furore last week after it was uploaded on YouTube.

“He has suffered from mental illness for a long time. On that day, he went into a mental crisis so I called an ambulance for him to be taken to hospital, but turned up instead. No ambulance came,” she told the Nation on Tuesday.

“When I asked the police why they were arresting my son, they said he had skipped bail. That was when they started kicking and punching him in the head and ribs. They also broke his nose. There were seven police officers.”

Kenya’s complaint

The incident saw the Kenyan government write to UK authorities demanding urgent investigations into why police beat the unarmed 24-year-old.

The Kenyan High Commission in London indicated in a statement on Monday that it had written to British authorities, demanding action against the errant police.

“The High Commission has already communicated with the UK government, raising the Government of Kenya's concerns on the unnecessary force on an unarmed man," the Mission said in a statement.

Arrest

It is said that the man committed a crime earlier and was granted bail with conditions that were not publicised.

But Ms Japhet said her son was arrested for an action he committed while mentally indisposed and that he couldn’t understand the bail terms.

“The police do not care about his health condition as they say they are not medics,” she said.

The family has since filed a complaint at the Essex Police as well an independent complaints commission.

However, UK authorities only say the investigation could be finalised within 365 days - giving no definite date of punishing the errant officers.

Petition

A British citizen, in the meantime, has raised a petition demanding justice for the man.

Mia Kearns posted a petition on the blog '38 Degrees' accusing Essex Police of mishandling the incident.

"We want to bring the justice he and his family deserve after he was brutally assaulted by police and pinned down from head to toe as they saw him as threat just because of his mental health," Kearns wrote in the petition, arguing the man may have been scared and that the police had no excuse to beat him up.

"We want to make it possible for him to get the mental support he needs, let his family contact him and keep them updated on his mental state, along with having the police officers at the scene punished for their actions."

Ugly scene

The video shows the man near parked cars, bleeding from his nose following a commotion with people wearing UK police uniforms.

It is unclear what he had done to attract police attention or whether he had resisted an arrest. Some online commentators had claimed he had a mental disorder.

In the same video, women are heard screaming and asking the police officers to stop beating him up, one saying "don't kill my son."

The Kenyan High Commission said it will follow up the matter “so that justice is seen to be done done and all involved are held to account for their actions, according to UK police conduct and regulations".