06 August 2021

The two Embu brothers who died after being arrested by police last Sunday had various injuries on their bodies.

They range from broken ribs, dislocated shoulder and hip, facial disfiguration and severe head injuries according to an autopsy report in Mpasho's possession.

The weird thing about all these injuries on the bodies of the murdered Embu brothers is that they did not have defensive wounds.

The question is, were they handcuffed during the brutal assault?

A defence wound or self-defence wound is an injury received by the victim of an attack while trying to defend against the assailant.

Defensive wounds are often found on the hands and forearms, where the victim has raised them to protect the head and face or to fend off an assault, but may also be present on the feet and legs where a victim attempts defence while lying down and kicking out at the assailant.

According to a research document titled, "Autopsy Evaluation of Defence Wounds in Homicidal Death in Central India", the absence of defence wounds might be because the victim did not have a chance to defend himself from the attack.

This may be either due to a single fatal blow, suddenness of attack or the victim being taken bysurprise or their are tied and cannot respond appropriately to the attack.

The postmortem was conducted at Embu Level 5 mortuary on Thursday, August 5.

The bodies of Benson Njiru Ndwiga,22, and Emmanuel Mutura Ndwiga, 19, who had been missing since Sunday were on Tuesday found at Embu Level 5 mortuary.

The report invalidates the police report which stated the two brothers jumped off a moving police vehicle thus incurring injuries that led to their death.

According to the report, the two brother's bodies were discovered dumped along the Kiriari-Mbuuori road.

The autopsy was done by three different Pathologists: Dr Martha Mwangi who represented the family, Dr Ndegwa represented Independent Medico-Legal Unit (IMLU) and Dr Doris Namu who represented Embu Hospital.

Others were Dr Peter Muturi and Dr Kamau Wangari.

The family advocate, Muchangi Gichugu, while giving the report as was directed by the family pathologist, said Benson Njiru’s body had multiple injuries on the head and broken limbs.

According to the report, Benson's injuries documented the extent of the torture he underwent.

His green and grey jumper had blood stains and his hair had dried blood and was dusty brown.

He had a dislocated right shoulder, facial and skull deformation, dislocated left hip and the pathologist noted that he had "No defence marks."

Besides that Benson has multiple rib fractures and the pathologists concluded that the cause of death was "multiple injuries secondary to blunt force trauma."

His younger brother, Emmanuel did not have bloodstains on his clothes but his injuries included, a deformed head with extensive bruises on the face. Multiple bruises on the left and right arms and abrasions on the lower back and left buttock

His cause of death according to the pathologist was "severe head injury due to blunt force trauma".

The Police Reforms Working Group, IMLU and the Independent Policing Oversight Authority (IPOA) are also investigating the matter.

“We believe the truth will be known soon. We also urge the government to investigate according to the report and those involved to be arrested and taken to court so that our late children can get justice,” said Felix Njagi, an uncle to the two brothers.

Njagi also said the bodies have been transferred to Tenri hospital Mortuary for preservation as they make burial arrangements.