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AllAfrica.com - Africa
18 November 2005

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Maimed By Crazed Policemen

John Koigi
Nairobi

Now paralysed and speechless, driver Philip Kimani used to feed, clothe and educate his family until somebody shot dead two city policemen.

Images of policemen clobbering people with clubs when breaking up demonstrations remind him of that fateful evening of Friday, January 15, 1993, the day he said his last word, literally.

Driving along Ronald Ngala Street, Nairobi, Philip Kimani was flagged down by a group of policemen.

He was used to this in his day job as a matatu driver. But on this instance, he felt wee-bit uneasy. It was the late evening rush hour, but he had no passengers in the van.

He was headed for Eastleigh residential estate to pick an employee of Hilton Hotel who was reporting for duty that evening. Kimani's employer, Richard Ng'ang'a, had a contract to transport workers of various city hotels to and from their night shifts. Kimani, a matatu driver since 1968, routinely handled this chore.

As soon as he stepped from the vehicle, the policemen set upon him with rifle butts, batons, whips and kicks, without saying a single word.

He was left for dead, lying on the street in a pool of blood, with multiple fractures to the head, arms and ribs. His employer would find the engine running the following morning. Kimani began an eternal healing journey from various hospital beds.

He lost his speech and the use of his right leg and hand. Though he can listen and understand, he communicates using signs or by writing with his left hand. From his singleroomed abode at Embu's Majimbo village, he recounts his ordeal by muttering "baahs", "waahs" and "aahs" which his wife Felista Njeri ably translates.

Twelve years later, Kimani still bears indelible scars of this police brutality. His left temple has a pronounced dent, where he was repeatedly hit with rifle butts. "It has been very, very painful to see a person who was healthy and fending for himself incapacitated for no reason," says Njeri, who hawks cereals at the local Embu market. "Time cannot heal his wounds. But I hope it will heal those in my heart."

Kimani was among the hundreds of Nairobi residents who faced the wrath of police brutality that evening, out on a revenge mission for their two colleagues who had been murdered hours earlier. The two officers were on foot patrol along Kirinyaga, Race Course, Latema and Duruma roads, and other adjacent areas in downtown Nairobi.

They reportedly stopped suspicious looking men and asked them to identify themselves. The men turned out to be gangsters who shot the officers on the spot, killing them instantly.

The deaths sparked off a night-long security operation in the area, with crazed policemen in a murderous revenge mission storming bars, shops and lodgings, amidst shrieks of mercy from the victims. They ransacked buildings and yanked off the metal doors of some of the shops using their Land-Rovers.

The night of terror made frontpage news the following day and the police actions condemned by human rights activists. Many were injured and others arrested arbitrarily and taken to Central and Shauri Moyo police stations.

Nation journalist Muthui Mwai who was at the scene interviewing people about the deaths of two policemen - before the orgy of violence began - was also clobbered and subsequently hospitalised with swollen legs, arms, chest and back.

But Kimani, by virtue of the severity of his injuries, became the symbol of this brutality. The picture of his near lifeless body was splashed on the front pages of the local dailies, sympathisers milling around him. One headline screamed, "Police killings spark off rampage."

Though the then Police Commissioner Philip Kilonzo insisted that the police had used "police investigation ethics", nobody was charged with the killing of the two officers. A Sh50,000 reward to anyone providing information that would lead to the arrest of the killers bore nothing.

At the scene of Kimani's beating, Good Samaritans held an impromptu harambee and raised Sh350 to take him to Kenyatta National Hospital. He began a painful journey to recovery, characterised by multiple operations, X-rays, heavy medication and physiotherapy.

His skull had been broken, leaving a notable depression on the left side of his head. He had broken three limbs and dislocated his right shoulder, while his brain caves and right sensory organs were damaged. This resulted in loss of speech, and paralysis on the right side of his body.

Since then, he has been in and out of various hospitals and suffers recurrent epileptic fits. Kimani also feels a constant itch around the dent on his head and dreads visiting a barber.

"It's punishment to me and him for a person of his age to spend a working day inside the house. I have to wash, clothe and feed him," said his wife.

A medical report by a consultant surgeon Dr Gichuru Kuria put Kimani's disability at between 58 and 63 per cent. "It is highly unlikely that he will ever recover more to enable him get gainful employment.

He will require extensive rehabilitation, both physical and mental to enable him do basic simple things. Due to the gross brain damage, it is unlikely that he will ever recover his lost motor functions," said the report.

A father of six Kimani, 44, was earning Sh10,000 a month before the incident, which was enough to raise his children, and put him on track to realising his dream of venturing into the property market. All that he has now are fond memories of lost dreams.

His children Stephen Mwangi, 26, and Jennifer Muthoni, 22, are casual labourers in Nairobi.

Kimani subsequently sued the government and two years ago, he awarded Sh2,116,457 for general and special damages. The money will be paid out soon. He plans to buy a plot and put up rental houses.

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Article sourced from

AllAfrica.com - Africa18 November 2005

Maimed By Crazed Policemen

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AllAfrica.com - Africa
18 November 2005