Meru man forced to spend cold night with his late wife’s body at a police station

A Kenyan who lost his wife to cancer was left stranded by the roadside watching over his late wife’s remains after a run-in with the police.

Charles Mwenda said he had travelled from Malindi on Wednesday, May 27 and in the company of several family members who were headed to Meru for his late wife’s funeral. He had obtained all the necessary documents and had even undergone a coronavirus test. Mwenda managed to cross police barriers from Malindi until he got to the Meru-Tharaka Nithi border.

At around 11pm on Thursday, May 28 the car they were in was stopped by police officers manning the blockade who demanded that everyone apart from the decedent’s husband returns to Malindi.

“We were at the final police barrier at Meru-Tharaka Nithi border at a place called Keeria, where we were stopped by police and forced out of the car.what I saw there was so inhuman, upon a lengthy discussion all my family and friends were forced back to malindi,” Mwendwa says.

Mwenda who was left with his late wife’s body was ushered into a waiting police vehicle. The police officers threatened to cart him off to a 14-day quarantine if he did not comply. He was then dropped off at the Kanjai police station and his late wife’s body was also off-loaded from the police vehicle and placed by the roadside.

“I pleaded with the police to help me get the body to my home which is 5km from the police station, but they refused,” he adds.

That day and the entire night, he spent it all in the cold, with the casket containing his wife’s remains keeping him company. Mwenda covered the coffin with a piece of tarp before pulling it under a lorry that had been packed at the station when it started raining,

The next day, he was picked by a friend at around 6am and managed to get home to give his late wife her delayed, dignified send off albeit without his three children, family and friends.