Harrison Wachira: Family Of Man Dragged by Police in Juja Says He was Closing Shop to Escape Chaos
- The family of Harrison Wachira, the man seen being dragged by police in Juja, has identified him and is now demanding justice
- Wachira, a 37-year-old motorbike mechanic, was reportedly not part of the Saba Saba protests when he was fatally shot
- His fiancée, Esther Mumbi, recalled their last phone call, cut short by tear gas, moments before he went silent forever
- His uncle and sister have rejected police claims that he was trampled, insisting he was shot while working and later dragged "like an animal"
Didacus Malowa, a journalist at TUKO.co.ke, brings over three years of experience covering politics and current affairs in Kenya.
The family of Harrison Wachira, the 37-year-old man whose lifeless body was dragged along a Juja road by police, is speaking out, rejecting official claims and demanding answers.
Source: UGC
Wachira, a motorbike mechanic based just outside Juja Town, met his death during the Saba Saba protests on July 7.
But according to his loved ones, he wasn’t part of the demonstrations; rather, he was at his workplace, fixing bikes as usual, when the chaos caught up with him.
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Esther Mumbi, Wachira’s fiancée, recounted what would be their last conversation, revealing that she implored him to close the shop.
The couple had been speaking on the phone when tear gas was lobbed near Wachira’s shop, prompting him to complain about the smoke obscuring his visibility.
"He told me the teargas was too much, that he was getting ready to close up and go home. Then he said, ‘Wait a moment, I can’t see clearly because of the smoke’ That was the last time I ever heard from him," Mumbi recalled, holding back tears inside their one-room rental in Juja’s Highpoint estate.
Hours later, she received a video that would turn her world upside down: a body being dragged along the tarmac near Juja Police Station.
At the time, the devastated young lady didn’t know that it was her fiancée in the horrifying incident.
How did Wachira die?
In the days that followed, the family pieced together the truth with a man working next to him revealing to Mumbi that he had been shot.
Despite initial claims that he had been trampled in the chaos, his body told a different story: a gunshot wound to the left side of his throat.
"They’ve written that he was trampled during the chaos, but that’s not true, there was no trampling. His body wasn’t stepped on. The mud on his clothes is from how he was dragged on the ground like an animal. Wachira wasn’t even part of that Saba Saba commotion," said Wachira’s uncle, Kanyi Kinyua Gachuhi.
Gachuhi expressed fury over how the police treated his body, dragging him into the police station.
"Even in death, he was not given respect. He was not a criminal. He was at his place of work a hardworking young man. That is where he was shot dead. But that image of him being dragged on the road will haunt us forever. He was a human being, not an animal," he lamented.
Wachira’s sister, Aisha Wangui, echoed the pain, adding that he did not deserve to be dragged on the road.
Source: UGC
Wangui, who raised Wachira and his siblings after their parents died, described him as kind and determined.
Wachira’s body is currently at the General Kago Funeral Home in Thika, awaiting a post-mortem.
Did Ruto order the police to shoot protesters?
In another report, President William Ruto ordered police to shoot in the legs anyone caught looting or vandalising property during protests.
He emphasised incapacitating suspects, then calling for medical attention and court proceedings, without killing them.
Ruto defended the directive as a necessary step to protect businesses and maintain public order, warning that those sponsoring unrest would be held accountable.
Proofreading by Mercy Nyambura, copy editor at TUKO.co.ke.
Source: TUKO.co.ke
