Murang'a man beaten to death: Mother, brother arrested

A 21-year-old man in Murang'a County has died after it was claimed that his mother and younger brother disciplined him with a severe beating accusing him of being a domestic thief.

This marks yet another dynamic front of lawlessness that has gripped Murang'a County where residents have resorted to taking the law in their own hands, punishing those they deem as miscreants on behalf of perceived collapsed security governance.

The August 22, 2024, incident occured at Gatunduguru village in Kigumo Constituency where after several complaints to area police station and no action being taken, the family decided to seek its own domestic reprieve.

"We have arrested the mother and the brother over the death of their family member identified as John Ng'ang'a. We are investigating them regarding the claimed attack that left the victim dead," said Kigumo Sub-County police commander Mr Kiprono Tanui.

Mr Tanui added that preliminary investigations indicate that the deceased had earlier returned home at around 10pm while drunk.

"The verbal witnesses that we have so far gathered indicate that the young man had a history of stealing from the family so as to finance his several addictions. There are several reports that the family has made against the deceased in area police stations," he said.

Mr Tanui added that among the thefts that the  family had complained against the deceased were stealing of iron sheets, avocadoes, household items as well as clothing belonging to family members.

Murang'a Senator Joe Nyutu told AVDelta News that the trigger to the unfortunate incident is contained in the revelation that the family had made several reports against their kin with no action being taken.

"It is under such a relationship between the deceased and his family members that saw the fatal attack happen. We now have the matter getting out of hand with mother and her son being prime suspects. It defines that we have a grave problem," Mr Nyutu said.

Mr Tanui said the body contained head and back injuries that appeared on face value to have been caused by use of blunt objects.

He added that there was a mention of use of club and pieces of wood to batter the man till he died.

"The body has been moved to Murang'a Level 5 Hospital mortuary where a postmortem will be conducted and root cause of death defined. If his mother and brother are found to be in the wrong, they will be charged," he said.

Mr Nyutu wondered whether if the tragedy would have been averted had the police taken seriously complaints by the family that it's kin was a thief.

"Had the police moved in and arrested the suspect for corrective rehabilitation, I wonder whether this later incident that has claimed the life of the reported suspect would have arisen," he said.

Gatunduguru village elder Ms Jane Wairimu said "I am a witness that the family has been going through a lot in the hands of the deceased".

She told AVDelta News that "I am privy to even police reports by the family complaining that the deceased had started destroying houses in the compound harvesting materials to sell ad scrap metal, stealing avocadoes, utensils and even livestock to finance drug and alcohol addictions".

The death of the youth becomes yet another additional data on ever growing cases of mob lynch in Murang'a.

In the past two months, police records indicate residents have lynched eight suspects, burnt five(5) houses, raided two(2) police stations, two(2) chiefs camps, and destroyed two(2) police vehicles.

Mr Nyutu described the building up culture as that of anarchy, that trashes the constitution and attached penal codes.

"We must now make it crystal clear whether we want a county that seeks primitive justice or that strictly adheres to the rule of law. We cannot have both as order... the buck stops with the County Security Committee," he said.

Murang'a County Sports and Youth Affairs Executive Manoah Gachucha said "we are being treated to this circus owing to serious collapse of policing integrity".

“We have some police officers who only love bribes, but not enforcing the law,” Mr Gachucha said.

He said public frustrations with policing services in the hands of marauding gangs are the root cause of lawlessness.

"As some of our police officers cut deals with criminals, the residents are coming out to exercise their sovereign power and the result is extremism... it is not the way to build a county and our police officers better be warned that they are sinking us into lawlessness," he said.