Funeral held for six-month old Kenyan baby clobbered by police

david nganga

August 25, 2017 2:56 PM

Hundreds of mourners gathered for the funeral service of Samantha Pendo who died from injuries sustained after being hit by anti-riot police.

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Hundreds of mourners gathered at the St Joseph Catholic Church in Kisumu for the funeral service of six-month old Samantha Pendo, who died from injuries sustained after being hit by anti-riot police.

Pendo died in a coma on August 15, three days after she was admitted to the Aga Khan Hospital.

She was critically injured on the head by armed police officers who raided her parents’ house in Nyalend, Kisumu town during a door-door operation after demonstrations against the outcome of the presidential elections.

Her parents, who were also badly beaten, were heartbroken and inconsolable after the doctors informed them that they had lost the baby.

“One of the guys beat me and the other one came with that stick on them and hit the baby. Then I left the baby off of my hand because she did not cry, I did not feel any movement with the baby. I said screaming, she was dead,” her mother, Lenzer Achieng said before the baby’s death.

The baby was put on a life support machine at the ICU, soon after her admission but never came out of the coma. Doctors said she suffered internal bleeding caused after being hit by a heavy blunt object.

The Kenyan government, the Independent Police Oversight Authority (IPOA), said it is investigating whether Pendo was killed by the police.

In yet another case of police brutality, eight-year-old Stephanie Moraa was shot by a stray bullet as police fired to disperse protesters in the Nairobi slum of Mathare.

Police were accused of using excessive force in dealing with protesters who rejected the declaration of President Uhuru Kenyatta as winner of the polls.

The opposition has since filed a petition at the Supreme Court to challenge the Presidential outcome.

david nganga