A mournful cloud has enveloped Mirembe village in Kongoni location, Likuyani Sub County after the body of a middle aged man was discovered dangling on a tree under unclear circumstances after allegedly being harassed by police officers Monday night.
According to Geoffrey Hamis Masinde, his brother Shaban Hamis Barasa had spent a great part of Monday at Matunda hospital where he had taken his wife in labor pain but she couldn’t deliver normally prompting a referral to Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital Eldoret for specialized attention.
He said his brother was asked to pay some amount to facilitate the referral process and returned home very late in the evening to look for the money but at around 9pm armed police officers stormed his compound demanding to arrest him over undisclosed reasons.
The move by police officers attracted attention of villagers who intervened demanding to know the offense committed by the deceased whom they said was a humble man who troubled no one.
The villagers engaged police officers blocking the arrest, demanding they introduce themselves for locals to be sure they were police officers.
“We couldn’t just let our brother to be taken away at night by strangers since we weren’t sure whether they were police officers or thugs donning in police uniforms,” said a family member adding that they wanted him to be left and be surrendered by the family to police in the morning if at all he was a criminal.
The officers suspected to be from Nangili police station tried shooting in the air to disperse the crowd in vain before they left him in his compound.
Masinde said after the commotion everybody surrendered to their houses but in the morning when he woke up and went to check on his brother so that they could report at Nangili police station he was shocked to find his body hanging on a tree in his farm.
“My brother might have committed suicide out of stress since he didn’t know the state of his wife who he had left in the hospital coupled with harassment by the officers might have driven him to take his life in such a cruel manner,” said Masinde.
The body was later removed by police officers from Nangili and taken to Kimbilio mortuary as the family demanded for a thorough investigation into the incident.
