Tears as mother recounts how police killed Baby Pendo

Lancer Achieng, the mother to Baby Samantha Pendo narrated to a Kisumu court how she lost her baby in the hands of anti-riot police after the announcement of the August 8 presidential election.

Baby Pendo died in August last year after she was reportedly hit on the head by police who stormed her parents’ house in Nyalenda slums, Kisumu.

Appearing before Resident Magistrate Beryl Omollo, Ms Achieng, who was the first to take to the witness stand as the public inquest hearing began, told the court how the officers lobbed teargas canisters inside their one-roomed house after they declined to open the door.

Lancer said that the officers broke the door and started hitting her husband with a baton, and then moved on to her despite the fact that she was holding a baby.

“He was slim, tall, dark, and wore a green police cap,” she described the officer that killed her child.

“He came in and started beating me up. When he first hit me, I tried to block him and told him that I had a baby and they should not hurt her. But they did not listen to me. He hit me again and hit the child in the process,” added Achieng.

“I realised he had hit the baby when Pendo’s grip on me tightened as if she was in pain. When I looked at her, I noticed foam coming out of her mouth. Her head swelled immediately and I just started crying,” she recounted amid tears.

During the cross examination by state prosecutor Nyakundi Mokaya, the case hearing was interrupted thrice as Achieng broke into tears while narrating how her six- month old baby met her gruesome untimely death.

Lancer further added that one of the officers, however, was compassionate and advised them to conduct first aid for baby Pendo.

She narrated how they made frantic walks to three hospitals that night to seek medical attention for baby Pendo and finally landed at Aga Khan Hospital where the baby later passed on after a day in ICU.

Their 11-year-old daughter who was also in the house that fateful also gave her testimony in camera before the court.