This archive report was first published on 16 November 2019.
On November 11, 2019, Allan Omondi, a 22-year-old food science and technology student at Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology, was brutally assaulted by four police officers.
According to Mr. Omondi, the incident occurred when he was on his way back to the university after learning that classes had been suspended due to student unrest.
Mr. Omondi told the Saturday Nation that he had been walking back to his hostel when he heard a commotion near the university's main gate and headed there to see what was happening.
He said that students were assembling at the gate to protest the rising insecurity in and outside the university, and that there were no signs of danger for almost an hour as more students gathered while police officers watched from a distance.
However, the officers later lobbed teargas canisters at the students, leading to a commotion, and it was during this chaos that the four police officers isolated and viciously attacked Mr. Omondi.
They never asked anything, Mr. Omondi said, and instead referred to him as a Mungiki student due to his dreadlocks, saying: 'This is a Mungiki student. You joke with us and we will kill you and dump your body in the bush.'
Mr. Omondi believes that the officers' actions were motivated by a desire to intimidate and silence him, and that they continued to beat him even after he was handcuffed and being taken to the station.
He said that he was made to hang precariously in the vehicle as it sped to the station, and that the officers continued to beat him and threaten him with violence.
One officer even said that Mr. Omondi's bloodshot eyes were a result of drug abuse, and that he would serve as an example to the rest of the students.
Mr. Omondi was later released after the video of the incident went viral, and he was taken to Thika Level Five Hospital and AAR Health Care for treatment.
Inspector-General of Police Hillary Mutyambai has since said that three of the officers captured in the clip had been identified and interdicted.
