Seven years after their baby daughter was killed during a brutal midnight operation by police in Kenya at a time of post-election tension, Joseph Oloo Abanja and Lensa Achieng are still raw with emotion as the case against the alleged officers involved has once again been delayed.
“It is a scar that will never fade away,” Ms Achieng, a hotel worker, tells the BBC about the death of six-month-old Samantha Pendo who died with a broken skull and of internal bleeding.
After each postponement or small development, the couple are swamped with calls. Each moment of expectation leads to disappointment in their search for justice.
The family live in the western city of Kisumu – an opposition stronghold where riots broke out in August 2017 amid anger about the results of an election that was eventually re-run because of irregularities.
Their small home was along a road in the Nyalenda informal settlement that witnessed protests on 11 August where anti-riot police were deployed. That night the couple locked their wooden door and barricaded it with furniture. At around midnight, they heard their neighbours’ doors being broken down and some of the occupants being beaten.
“It was not long before police officers arrived at their door. They knocked and kicked it several times [but] I refused to open,” Mr Abanja tells the BBC, adding that he pleaded with them to spare his family of four.
But the battering continued until the officers found a small space through which they threw a tear-gas canister into the one-roomed house, forcing the family out.
Mr Abanja says he was ordered to lie down outside the door and then the beating started.
“They were going for my head so I held my hands up, and they beat my hands until they could not hold any more.”
His wife came out of the house holding Samantha, who was having difficulty breathing because of the tear gas, and was not spared either.
“They went ahead beating me [with clubs] while I was holding my daughter,” Ms Achieng says.
The next thing she felt was her daughter holding her tight “as if she was in pain”.
“I turned her and what was coming outside her mouth? It was foam.”
She shouted that they had killed her daughter and it was at that moment the beatings stopped and Mr Abanja was ordered to administer first aid.
The baby came to but was badly injured.
The couple say officers then swiftly left and neighbours helped them rush Samantha to hospital. She died after three days in intensive care.
The case was initially investigated and an inquest was held, which found police officers responsible for Samantha’s death. However, the case has been delayed repeatedly, with the latest postponement being due to the appointment of a new public prosecutor.
If the delays continue, the victims’ lawyers may consider seeking justice via a private prosecution or going to the East African Court of Justice or the International Criminal Court (ICC).
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