NAIROBI, Kenya, Aug 2 — Five years after the deaths of Benson Njiru Ndwiga and Emmanuel Mutura Ndwiga, popularly known as the Kianjokoma brothers, their family has renewed calls for justice, expressing frustration over delays in the murder trial of six police officers accused of killing them.
The family says the prolonged court proceedings have caused emotional and financial strain and denied them closure, urging the Judiciary to expedite the case.
Speaking during a memorial mass held on Saturday, August 1, to mark the fifth anniversary of the brothers’ deaths, relatives said only nine of the 25 prosecution witnesses had testified since the trial began before the High Court in Nairobi in 2022.
They said 16 witnesses were yet to testify, nearly five years after the brothers died, with repeated adjournments further extending their wait for justice.
The case remains one of Kenya’s most prominent alleged police brutality cases linked to enforcement of COVID-19 restrictions.
Benson, 22, an engineering student at Don Bosco Technical Training Institute, and Emmanuel, 19, a law student at Kabarak University, died on the night of August 1, 2021, after they were arrested by police officers attached to Manyatta Police Station.
The brothers had been returning home after closing their newly opened pork butchery at Kianjokoma Trading Centre in Embu County.
At the time, police were enforcing a nationwide COVID-19 curfew that ran from 10pm to 4am as part of measures to contain the spread of the coronavirus.
According to accounts presented during investigations, Emmanuel initially escaped arrest but returned after realising that his elder brother had been detained.
Both were subsequently taken into police custody.
When the brothers failed to return home, their father, John Ndwiga, spent the following day searching for them at police stations, believing they had been detained for violating the curfew.
On August 3, 2021, the family was informed that the brothers’ bodies had been taken to the Embu Level 5 Hospital mortuary.
Police initially claimed that the two had jumped from a moving police vehicle while attempting to escape custody.
However, an independent post-mortem conducted by Chief Government Pathologist Dr Johansen Oduor found that both brothers had sustained severe blunt-force injuries to the head, chest and other parts of their bodies.
The findings contradicted the initial police account and triggered protests in Embu, with residents demanding justice.
The deaths also sparked nationwide outrage and renewed scrutiny of police accountability, use of force and enforcement of COVID-19 curfew restrictions.
Following investigations by the Independent Policing Oversight Authority (IPOA), six police officers — Benson Mbuthia, Consolata Kariuki, Nicholas Cheruiyot, Martin Wanyama, Lilian Cherono and James Mwaniki — were arrested and charged with two counts of murder.
The officers denied the charges and were subsequently released on bail pending trial.
The murder trial began before the High Court in Nairobi on February 9, and remains ongoing.
Speaking at the memorial, relatives said the prolonged proceedings had left the family emotionally exhausted and affected their ability to rebuild their lives.
“We have reached a dead end. The father is not working, the mother is not working. The other children were deeply affected by this tragedy and have been unable to move forward with their lives,” one family member said.
The relative said the family wanted justice for the brothers and questioned whether their concerns were being adequately addressed.
Another family member recalled Emmanuel’s decision to return for his brother after he escaped arrest, saying his choice should never have resulted in his death.
“The only ‘mistake’ — and it wasn’t really a mistake at all — was one brother going back for the other,” the relative said, calling on police officers to protect rather than harm citizens.
A family representative acknowledged that the case was progressing but urged the institutions involved to accelerate the proceedings.
“We appreciate that the wheels of justice are moving. But we are requesting the systems that make them move to accelerate a little so that we can finally see justice being done,” the representative said.
Five years after Benson and Emmanuel died, the murder case remains before the High Court, with no verdict delivered.
The family says it is not seeking special treatment, but a timely conclusion to a case that has come to symbolise the wider demand for accountability in alleged cases of police brutality in Kenya.
As they marked the fifth anniversary of the brothers’ deaths, the relatives urged the Judiciary to expedite the hearing and allow the remaining prosecution witnesses to testify so that the case can reach its conclusion.
