5 top police commanders in trouble over Baby Pendo's death

juma chrispinus

November 16, 2017 7:04 AM

The officers were found culpable of outrageous crimes.

Five police commanders stationed in Kisumu are set for a major punishment following the death of a six month-old Samantha Pendo who was hit and killed by police officers in the post August election skirmishes.

Mr Keriako Tobiko led Directorate of the Public Prosecution (DPP) on Wednesday ordered a detailed inquest into the demise of Baby Pendo from Kisumu and the eight-year-old Stephanie Moraa who was killed by a stray bullet in Nairobi’s Mathare slum when police shot aimlessly.

In addition to the inquest, Mr Tobiko also ordered the Inspector General of Police Mr Joseph Boinnet to make plans and compensate the family of Stephanie Moraa who was killed in Mathare in post-election skirmishes.

Police however denied any wrong doing in the murder of the class five child, and instead said the girl was shot by a thug, whom the police was pursuing in the slum.

Samantha Pendo, alias Baby Pendo, the postmortem analysis by a Government Consultant Pathologist Dickson Mchana revealed, died of internal bleeding, thanks to the pain inflicted by a police’s button.

“Actually it was bad. The baby had gaping head fractures (and) that is what kept her alive. When the scalp opens it relives pressure, otherwise if it would have been enclosed the baby would have died immediately,” Dr Mchana had said.

The order by the Mr Keriako Tobiko comes barely a week after the Independent Policing and Oversight Authority (IPOA) issued a statement to effect that it was almost done with the detailed investigations in to the alleged police brutality.

IPOA found the police culpable of using live bullets to quell the increasingly violent protests by National Super Alliance demonstrations that followed the announcement of President Uhuru Kenyatta the winner of the highly divisive August 8 polls.

IPOA also clarified that the fracas that was witnessed at the University of Nairobi, in which over 29 students were injured when police raided the institution was set for completion.

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