This archive report was first published on 17 September 2019.
On a Saturday, a Form Four student left home with four friends, including a schoolmate, to attend a night club party before school opened. The group ended up at Club Janam, formerly Buccaneers Club, a popular destination for nude dancers and strippers in Kisumu.
The student's woes began after he was accused of stealing a mobile phone from another reveler, prompting the rough intervention of mean-looking bouncers. Insiders claim that the boy was later dragged to a small room, known as the darkroom, where he was further roughed up by a group of bouncers before police arrived.
While at the Central Station Police cells, other inmates grew concerned about the student's condition and intervened to have the police rush him to the hospital. However, he allegedly succumbed to his injuries on the way to Kisumu Sub-county Hospital.
Initially, the police denied booking the student at the station, but later admitted to doing so after pressure mounted. The family was met with shocking scenes at the hospital's mortuary, where they found the lifeless body of their child in clean-washed clothes with no blood.
Janam Club first hit the headlines in 2016, when it emerged that the management had recruited college students and high school girls to pole-dance for pocket money. The move sparked uproar from the public, who called for immediate police action.
Under new management, the club has become even more notorious. The family is now calling on Police Inspector General Hillary Mutyambai and DCI George Kinoti to deploy a reliable investigative team to handle the matter, as it appears that the local police may have been compromised.
Published on September 17, 2019, at 4:21 PM.
