Family Rejects Suicide Claim After Custody Death
A grieving family in Makueni has called for full accountability following the sudden death of Gedion Makau inside a holding cell at Kilungu Police Station.
Relatives firmly reject the official explanation that he took his own life and insist on an independent inquiry to establish what truly occurred while he remained under police care. The case has drawn wider attention amid longstanding worries about the safety of individuals detained at the facility.
Makau was taken into custody on a Tuesday evening last week after officers arrested him at his business premises in Nunguni Shopping Centre on suspicion of possessing a machete. He was booked at the station that same night, yet by the following morning his relatives received the devastating news that he had died. The family says they received no timely information about his condition or location and only learned of the tragedy when a friend noticed his body being moved toward a mortuary.
Police later summoned the relatives and stated that Makau had allegedly used his own trousers to end his life while alone in the cell. His mother, Teressia Mbandi, dismissed the account outright after examining her son. “We were being told that he committed suicide using his trousers. This seems to be false because the trousers were not tight and were loose, and even when I checked the neck, there was no sign of strangulation,” she said, adding that nothing she observed supported the suicide claim.
Makau’s body now rests at the Kilungu Sub-County Mortuary as the family awaits a postmortem examination that they hope will clarify the precise cause of death. Relatives further assert that he is the third person to die while held at the same station, a claim that has intensified public concern over repeated fatalities in custody. The Independent Policing Oversight Authority has already stepped in to examine the circumstances.
The family continues to press for the immediate transfer of officers stationed at Kilungu while the probe advances, arguing that only a transparent process can deliver justice. They maintain that unanswered questions about the short time between arrest and death demand thorough scrutiny so that the truth about what happened inside the cell can finally emerge.
