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Police in Mtwapa are on the spot after a contingent of officers from Mtwapa Police station were allegedly involved in brutal killing of a palm wine tapper in Mtomondoni area of Kilifi South Sub County on Monday morning.
The officers are said to have shot Juma Changawa,25, on the
head on close range, killing him instantly on Monday 10, 2021.
Family led by the late Changawa’s brother Amani Nzani and
Kilifi based Human Rights lobbyists have accused authorities at Mtwapa police
station of ‘feigning cover-up of one of their own’.
“Police in Mtwapa Police station have refused to cooperate.
They have denied the family a chance to record any statement and now we have
decided to take the matter to the Independent Police Oversight Authority
(IPOA),” said Eric Mgoja of Kilifi Social Justice Center.
According to witnesses, the officers donning civilian
clothes said to be six in number, arrived at the congested Mtomondoni
settlement on the fringes of busy Mtwapa town at around 10.00am on three
unmarked motorbikes and headed straight to one of the houses where they found
the deceased together with his dreadlocked friend identified as Jay.
After introduction, the officers took Jay into his house and
asked him to allow them ransack his house searching for drugs.
In the process, Jay says they heard a single burst of
gunfire emanate from the neighborhood but the officers would not allow him to
go out and see what was happening.
“I would later learn that it was my friend Changawa the palm
wine tapper who was shot dead. He had just visited me and brought some
drumsticks and told me to prepare lunch while he went to refresh and was to
return later for lunch,” Jay explained.
A witness, who claims to have seen one of the officers
pulling the trigger disclosed to People Daily that after killing the
victim, the officer used a pen knife to cut his arm before tearing a piece of
cloth off his shirt and used it to wrap the cut.
“He then used the knife to dislodge a bullet from the
victim’s head before taking out his handkerchief which he used to wrap the
bullet and put it on his rare pocket. All this time they tried to keep off
residents from milling around the scene,” explained the witness who said he is
now fearing for his life as the officers wanted to get hold of him after taking
photos of the scene.
Another witness, Lydia Nguma Kalama said she was in the
house with family when they heard a gunshot just outside their house.
“When I walked out, I was shocked to find that it was
Changawa sprawling down writhing in pain as brains oozed off his skull. His
life was ebbing out. I was so shocked and confused because I know him. I
started screaming for help but the officer who I hadn’t noticed told me to keep
quiet and return into the house,” explained Kalama.
The incident attracted an irate mob who responded by
attacking the said officers with stones before torching the three motorbikes.
In the process, the officers escaped on foot with two of
them allegedly hijacking a bodaboda operator and ordered him to drop him at
Mtwapa police station.
Efforts to get comments from the police were unsuccessful as
Mtwapa Sub County police commander Mohammed Waqo said he was not in a position
to comment about the matter since he was in Nairobi.
“Please I am not in the office. I have taken my child to school
in Nairobi and I am in a place where I cannot talk on the phone. Contact
somebody who is in the office,” the police boss said over the phone.
At Mtwapa police station, junior officers talked about the
incident in hushed tones and no one was willing to speak to the press.
The Deputy Sub County Police Commander Paul Otieno was also
not in office and declined to answer our calls.
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