Gone too soon. But why was he suffocated? And who were the men who identified themselves as detectives when they picked him up?
It is a puzzle in the death of Basil Saka, a young Kawangware man with no criminal record according to friends, relatives and even some police within neighbouring stations.
He was picked up by men in civilian clothes but who identified themselves as detectives but five days later, his mother Lilian Maloba found his body at the City Mortuary.
The body was taken there in a police car from Ruiru, according to mortuary attendants.
“I was told by the mortuary attendants that his death was sudden from what they were informed by police from Ruiru,” Maloba said during an interview with Capital FM News.
The family is now demanding justice for Saka.
“Why a sudden death as indicated in the mortuary? Sudden from what?” a trail of questions run through Maloba’s mind.
And though the process of getting justice may be slow and painful, she wants it delivered now or even tomorrow.
“I just want justice. Are these people human? Do they have children?” she wondered.
It was on October 8 at about 3pm when Saka received a call from a person known to him.
He was with friends some few kilometres from his parents one-bedroom house.
“The friend wanted to know where he was, which he willingly said,” a friend who sought anonymity and spent the last minutes with the deceased .
Minutes later, a Subaru with tinted windows arrived.
“He was picked and even before we could enquire where they were taking him and for what, the car had left. We were of course scared at that time and unfortunately, no one thought of taking the car’s number plate,” he said. It was the last time Saka was seen alive.
His lifeless body was to be later found at the City Mortuary by his restless mother, who trusted her conscience.
The police are also on the spot over the disappearance and murder of a young man from Nairobi’s Kawangware area. Residents of the area accuse the police of taking 27 year old Basil Maloba Saka into custody on 8 Sept 18.
#JusticeForCaleb #MissingVoicesKE https://t.co/xwuRB8yGqh— NCHRD-K (@nchrdkenya) October 17, 2018
“After looking for him in all hospitals, something inside told me he was dead. Though a painful thought, I knew my son was dead. And while everyone else rushed to even more hospitals for a search, I decided to go to the City Mortuary,” a teary Maloba narrated.
“His body did not have any physical injury. The clothes were clean.”
According to mortuary records, his body was taken to City Mortuary Tuesday morning on October 9. An analysis by the Chief Government Pathologist later showed he died of suffocation.
The body was taken to the mortuary just hours after he was picked by the men who identified themselves as detectives.
Saka was a supervisor in ongoing rehabilitation of feeder roads within Kawangware.
“He was a good man,” Noel Amukoya, his auntie said. “We have more questions than answers.”
Cry of a mother: Why did police suffocate my son?: NAIROBI, Kenya, Oct 18 – Gone too soon. But why was he suffocated? And who were the men who identified themselves as detectives when they picked him .. https://t.co/NA3we2xLRW
— Breaking News (@News_Kenya) October 18, 2018