Cops beat man to death for not wearing mask?

KENYAN AUTHORITIES are investigating the death of a man who was detained for allegedly not wearing a face mask and was seen in police custody badly beaten. Later, his body was found floating in a river.

The I ndependent Police Oversight Authority Investigators have taken witness statements in the Lugari area of western Kenya about the arrest, disappearance and death a week ago of Dennis Lusava, 21, the group’s chairwoman Ann Makori told The Associated Press on Wednesday.

The disappearance of Lusava sparked anger among local residents who set fire to a police post, a day after Lusava was arrested. His body was found last week floating in the Nzoia River, according to officials from a rights group, which is also investigating the death.

It was the third police base that has been burned in Kenya since March by angry residents protesting alleged abuses by police enforcing COVID-19 regulations, such as the compulsory wearing of face masks.

Lusaka’s mother, Agnes Ambale, said in a phone interview that she went to the police station after her son was arrested on Wednesday last week.

“When I got there, they opened a room and my son was there, beaten to a bloody pulp and in his underwear, handcuffed to a window,”Ambale said. She said the police beat him with a baton in front of her.

“I could not stand the sight and I left,” she said. Later that day she brought clothes for her son, and when he could not put them on the officers beat him up some more, she said. She left in anguish again, saying the sight of her son in such condition was too painful for her. When she came back that evening, the police told her that her son had been released.

The Independent Medico Legal Unit, a non-governmental organisation that gives medical treatment and legal support for victims of police abuses, said their investigations confirm the account of Lusava’s mother.