Samuel Maina has been living in fear for two weeks.
He was attacked by police as he came from his work. Maina says he will live in fear, worried that the attacker might come back.
“I have a scar, I will forever walk with the scar,” Maina said during an interview with the Star on Sunday.
He was so fearful that he asked for the interview at a discrete place in Kahawa West, requesting we don’t reveal the premises as owners could be attacked for hosting us.
“Please make sure you don’t show pictures of these buildings because when you leave I’ll be in trouble,” a security woman in charge of the premises told the Star's reporter.
He was attacked by people he says were police officers approximately five minutes past 7pm as went home from work.
The attack left him with deep wounds in the face that led to reconstruction of his nose by doctors at Kenyatta National Hospital.
He lost his phone during the attack.
The injuries were so severe that two nearby hospitals refused to admit him.
He said he knows the officer who clobbered him as he has been seeing him in the neighbourhood.
While police spokesman Charles Owino said some of the attackers in alleged police brutality cases are robbers, Maina said his attackers wore police uniforms and attacked him with batons.
Maina, a barber, said his workplace is 10 minutes from his house and 100 metres form Kahawa West Police Station.
“I pass near the station every day as I go to work because I have always thought it’s the safest way and nobody would think of robbing me at any time.”
“It never crossed my mind this is the place I would be attacked like this," he said.
He has worked at the barbershop for five years and says he is well-known in the neighbourhood.
He is the first born in a family of two.
He said his mother has been calling him daily since the attack expressing fear and telling him to relocate to their rural home.
“It’s my tax that is used to buy the police weapons and uniform… I don’t understand why they do this to people. Maybe the officer was following an order to beat people. But haven’t they been trained on better ways of handling people?” He asked.
Last week, Maina was called to identify the officer who attacked him but suspects different officers were brought to the parade.
“I was told police officers from other far areas also come to patrol here without knowledge of the seniors in charge of this jurisdiction so would be hard to tell who was in patrol,” he said.
On Monday, he will go for another parade at Kasarani police station.
When he visited the station for the second time on May 28 accompanied by friends to ask for OB number after being denied for the first time, he was shocked to realise that even the OCS is his long-time customer.
“I have been shaving the OCS only that he comes in plain clothes and I never realised he is a police officer,” he said.
His attack prompted an uproar and condemnation on social media with many calling for an end to brutality.
Following sustained calls for justice for victims of police attacks, the Independent Policing Oversight Body said in a statement that it had received 87 complaints against police since the curfew and heightened security measures were rolled out on March 27.
“After preliminary investigations, 15 deaths and 31 incidents where victims sustained injuries have directly been linked to actions of police officers during the curfew enforcement,” Ipoa chairperson Anne Makori said.
In the same week, the entity said six police officers would be charged over deaths, shootings and assault of Kenyans.
“I’m the only one who has lived to tell the story,” Maina said.
Next week on Sunday, some activists are set to have a vigil for victims of police brutality in the city.
The protest organised by Social Justice Working Group is expected to start at Freedom Corner at 10am.
Edited by R.Wamochie