Postmortem reveals victim of police brutality in Nakuru died of paralysis related pneumonia
Jeremiah Mwaura who was assaulted by police in May during anti-fuel price hike protest during an earlier interview with Mtaa Wangu before his death on September 22, 2026
The post-mortem examination conducted has found that Jeremiah Mwaura Naika, the man who was brutally assaulted by police during anti-fuel price hike protests died of pneumonia that developed from his injurious condition
In the report seen by Mtaa Wangu dated September 29, government pathologist Dr Titus Ngulungu noted the cause of death was orthostatic pneumonia (a lung infection that develops when a person stays in bed or a single position for a long time).
“As a result of my examination, I have formed the opinion that the cause of death was Pneumonic process (orthostatic pneumonia) following spinal injury due to blunt force trauma to the neck,” the postmortem report noted.
The family says the 49-year-old was paralyzed after being struck by police during anti-fuel-price protests in Kiratina, on May 18,2026.
Mwaura died at 6 am on September 22, five months after he was allegedly struck with a baton by police officers while walking to work. His family says the blow paralysed him and set off his long health decline that ended in his death.
For the deceased wife, Jane Wangui Naika, life has not been easy since. Her hope of growing old beside her husband ended that morning.
Together they spent three weeks at Nakuru County Teaching and Referral Hospital and made repeated visits to Tenwek Hospital, including a surgery, as his body struggled against an injury his family could barely afford to keep treating.
Wangui became his full-time caregiver, watching a man who once supported his family come to depend on her for every need. She organized fundraisers when hospital bills outpaced their means and rearranged her days around his appointments.
She now carries a different kind of fight. She is asking IPOA to complete its investigation into the assault that injured her husband, and also to formally recognize what she and those close to the case already believe: that his death was not a separate tragedy but the final outcome of that same assault.
The pathologist's finding that pneumonia followed a spinal injury from blunt force trauma to the neck supports the connection the family has drawn between the two events.
"The two cannot be treated as unconnected events months apart. They are one continuous injury, starting in the streets of Kiratina and ending on a living room seat where my husband died," Wangui said as she sought justice for her husband.