Police coverup: Boy nursing bullet wounds locked up in cells for two days

Solomon Njoroge is only 14 and has grown up without a mother. He last kicked a soccer ball on the evening of July 7 this year, moments after hurriedly changing out his Bibirioni Primary School uniform, where he is in Grade 9.

The last sound he heard was not referee's whistle but crack of gunfire that shattered his legs and possibly his dreams. Now, he is not sure he will ever play football again.

For the past three days, he has lived the journey prescribed by President William Ruto: shot in the leg, rushed to hospital at night with bullets lodged in his body under police watch and then thrown into a police cell. 

His father, John Kibe Mungai, is a picture of misery. He has not rested or found time to fend for his family as he normally would, leaving him looking weak and lost in thought.

Since July 7, 2025 (Saba Saba), Mungai has been shuttling between Limuru, Tigoni, Kiambu and Nairobi in a desperate attempt to secure his son’s freedom and get him the medical care he needs. Young Njoroge was shot three times in his right leg by police officers, and as he lay on a playing field in Tigoni, within Kiambu County, they fired one last bullet into his left heel.

Njoroge, who is now admitted at Kenyatta National Hospital in Nairobi, is confined to a wheelchair as he awaits surgery. On that fateful day, Njoroge says he was playing soccer with friends when strangers in a white car drove up and began shooting in the air.

As the boys scattered in fright, Njoroge painfully recalls, “One boy fell and I was shot three times in my right leg. Another bullet hit the heel of my left leg after I fell. The people who shot us frisked our pockets and took my phone. Then they called their colleagues, who arrived in a police lorry that we were bundled into.”

Adding to his account, Njoroge says, “I was taken to Tigoni Hospital where they first put me on a drip and gave me a tetanus jab. Later, I was loaded onto a lorry and taken to the police cells.”

His father, who works as a hawker in Limuru town, says that on Saba Saba day, he left home as usual for business but found the town in chaos and decided to return home and rest. 

“In the afternoon, Njoroge came home from school, changed out of his uniform and went to the nearby playground to play football — not far from the house,” he said.

Around 6pm, while Kibe was preparing the evening meal, he says he received a call from his eldest son, who informed him that Njoroge had been shot and thrown into a police vehicle.

“I rushed to Tigoni Hospital and went straight to the mortuary, thinking my son was dead. But I was told no one had been brought in yet,” Kibe recalls. “When I approached the wards, I found two police officers who asked what I was doing there at that hour before allowing me in. That’s where I found Njoroge — he was already bandaged, but the medics told me to go and look for a vehicle to transfer him to Kiambu Hospital for further treatment,” the father said.

Kibe said he could not find any vehicle within Limuru because of the demonstrations. Since it was late and unsafe for him to return to Tigoni Hospital, he decided to go home, hoping that the medics would take good care of his son.

On July 8, Kibe went back to Tigoni Hospital, only to find that Njoroge had been moved to Tigoni Police Station, where he was booked and locked up in a cell. Police officers told him they were looking for a vehicle to take the boy to Kiambu Hospital for further treatment.

After some time, a police van was found, but they could not make the trip as Kiambu town was still chaotic, forcing them to return to the station. 

That day, Kibe says his pleas to have his son taken to hospital were not being taken seriously until he was finally escorted back to Tigoni Hospital, where medics changed Njoroge’s bandages.

“I was worried because the person who did the X-ray at the hospital said the wounds were serious and needed special attention, which the police could not pay for,” added Kibe.

On July 9, Kibe says he went back to the station hoping to take his son to Kiambu Hospital for treatment, but the officers kept taking him in circles. Eventually, he was informed that his son was being prepared to go to court.

“I went straight to court after hearing that and waited for him to be presented, but one of the officers came to me and said they had decided to release him on a free bond and that I should present him at Tigoni Police Station on July 17, 2025,” Kibe said.

A Law Society of Kenya member, Wacuka Kihunjo, who was alerted about the case, explained that by the time she tracked down Njoroge, he was already in the process of being released.

She said she had put pressure on the police, demanding to know why the boy was still being detained for more than 24 hours. Because of this, he was hurriedly taken to Kikuyu Court but was never presented before any magistrate.

“It took the intervention of another advocate to bring the matter to the court’s attention when the police finally decided to release him on free bond,” she said.

The advocate added that by the time she met Njoroge, he was badly injured and unable to walk as his right leg was bandaged. “He told me he had been shot three times — twice in one leg and once in the other — and he was in so much pain,” she said.

When she asked the police about his condition, they claimed they had taken him to hospital on the night of his arrest but admitted he hadn’t received further treatment since.

The advocate noted that the boy should never have been shot in the first place — if he had committed any crime, he should have been properly apprehended. And once injured, he should have been given prompt and adequate medical care.