Seven police officers under probe after death of Kiambu teacher

Seven police officers, including the Kiambu station commander, are being investigated following the death of a high school teacher they had arrested. (Read: Protests as teacher dies after arrest)

Police commissioner Mathew Iteere ordered the investigation after Mr John Muturi Kamau’s family claimed he died after being tortured while in police custody.

Officers who have been questioned include those who arrested him and their colleagues who were manning the report desk when the teacher was taken to the station.

Police spokesman Eric Kiraithe said: “Any officer found to have committed a criminal offence in respect of this death will be dismissed and prosecuted.”

By evening, 25 people had given their accounts to police, including those who shared a cell with Mr Kamau.

Police arrested the teacher on Sunday on allegations that he was drunk and disorderly.

He was released the following day, without having being charged. Mr Kamau, who looked sickly when he was released, was treated at Kiambu Hospital, then referred to Kenyatta National Hospital where he died.

“We are investigating circumstances surrounding the arrest, how the officers discovered he was unwell, the action they took, his release and what transpired while he was in State custody,” said Mr Kiraithe.

Why he was neither charged nor taken to hospital by police are some of the issues being investigated.

Mr Kamau taught biology and chemistry at Loreto Girls’ Secondary School in Kiambu.

The head of CID in Central Province, Mr Henry Ondiek, is leading the investigation.

Besides the interrogations, detectives are liaising with doctors to ascertain the cause of death. Mr Kiraithe said they would also depend on the postmortem report.

Mr Kamau’s death sparked protests in Kiambu on Wednesday. Residents, students and teachers took to the streets after the family accused police of causing his death.

According to his brother, Mr Kamau Terisia, the police detained him the whole night, but after his release, he complained of limb and lower abdomen pains, saying that police had beaten him.

Mr Stanley Mwangi, a colleague, said that when he was arrested, Mr Kamau called him and asked him to pick his car at the scene and meet him at the police station.

Mr Gathii Irungu, a lawyer, said he saw Mr Kamau just before he died and he instructed him to file a complaint against the police over the incident as he wished to sue.

Kenya National Union of Teachers have written a protest letter to Internal Security minister George Saitoti to unearth “unlawful arrest, torture and subsequent death of John Kamau”.

At the same time, a similar inquiry is being conducted in Kisumu after police shot two people while dispersing a crowd that had gathered to scoop fuel after a tanker transporting petroleum rolled.