Saturday morning, Dickson Gitonga, a police officer based at Nairobi’s Central Police Station, travelled to his rural home to meet his colleagues in Tharaka Nithi County, little did he know that danger awaited him there.
According to Ms Ann Loko, his wife, Gitonga went straight to the meeting because it was late, but he called her and promised to go home immediately after the meeting.
He called once again to notify his wife that the meeting was over and that he was going to buy meat for dinner.
“He called me around 6pm and asked me to cook ugali because he was going to buy meat,” Loko said.
Gitonga was reportedly clobbered by three military officers well known to him at a bar near Kirubia Stadium in Chuka sub-county at around 8:30pm. He succumbed to injuries while receiving treatment at Chuka Referral Hospital.
The late had a good day with the fellow members of the Tharaka Nithi County National Police Service Officers Welfare at a conference hall at Hola Filing Station until 6pm, when the meeting ended.
Gitonga then occampanied two other officers, one of them his cousin, to Kitharani Junction Pub, opposite the filing station on the Meru-Nairobi highway, minutes before 8pm.
Reports indicate that, the three alleged perpetrators —a Kenya Defence Forces soldier stationed at Gilgil, a corporal stationed at Laikipia Air Base in Nanyuki, and a former soldier who is said to have been in Afghanistan, drove into the bar compound and one of them got out and ended into the bar.
He went straight to where Gitonga was sitting with his two colleagues and asked him to buy him a beer. The two left the bar after a brief discussion.
As the two were leaving, the soldier allegedly pushed Gitonga to the ground and together with the other two who were standing near the vehicle, attacked him, severely injuring him on the chest and neck.
Gitonga’s friends rushed out and found him lying on the ground in a bad condition as the three entered their vehicle.
One of Gitonga’s friends was hit on the leg as the driver of the escaping vehicle reversed.The two men were rushed to hospital.
David Gitare, Gitonga’s brother who is a retired soldier reported the matter at Chuka Police Station at exactly 9:58pm.
Confirming the incident, Chuka Sub County Police Commander Paul Kuria said investigations were launched and one of the suspects was arrested while two others are being pursued.
“We have managed to arrest one of the accused and we are looking for the other two,” said Mr Kuria.
Gitonga’s sister, Ms Karimi Muchura said that his brother had not taken beer as he had spent the day at the meeting and the three must have planned to eliminate him.
Karimi revealed that hospital officials told them Gitonga had serious injuries to the chest and they had called Flying Doctors to take him to a hospital with an intensive care unit, but he died before they could arrive. His body was taken to the Lampedusa mortuary.
The late Gitonga leaves behind his wife and three children.
