From multiple injuries to fractured ribs, head and leg: What killed city lawyer

Grief, confusion and growing anger have engulfed the family of city lawyer Thomas Imbukwa, whose final moments were marked by pain, unanswered questions and a desperate fight for life after he was found critically injured near Harambee Sacco estate in Donholm.

Imbukwa, who was allegedly beaten and left for dead last Sunday, succumbed to his injuries on Tuesday, April 21, while receiving treatment at Kenyatta National Hospital. 

His family now believes police officers could have been involved in the brutal assault that claimed his life 

Speaking exclusively to The Standard on Friday during a postmortem exercise at the hospital morgue, his sister Mical Imbukwa alleged that relatives who first reached him, Imbukwa, indicated that police officers were responsible.

“My cousins told me that he said it’s the police who beat him,” Mical revealed. “We don’t know why. We don’t know what happened. But we want justice

His uncle, Patrick Kuya, also dismissed a narrative that he might have fallen from the rooftop of a storey building. 

"You cannot fall from that distance and move from scene," he said, urging authorities to speed up investigations. 

Autopsy revealed that he died from multiple injuries on the right side of the body, with fractures to all the right ribs, head and leg.

"What has been found is that he had severe injuries to the right side of his body. What has caused the injuries and the manner and cause of death have not yet been established, and the investigations are ongoing," said the family lawyer, Njanja Maina.

"Also, samples from the body have been taken, and the injuries have been documented just to try and see what exactly caused this death," she added. 

Investigative officers from the Directorate of Criminal Investigation's Homicide department were present during the autopsy.

At the same time, police said that Imbukwa died from injuries consistent with a violent assault.

Boniface Lomuk, OCPD Buruburu Police Station, told The Saturday Standard a day before the autopsy that Imbukwa had been “beaten up, probably using a blunt object,” sustaining injuries across his body. 

“We are investigating the matter, and our teams are on the ground,” a police spokesperson said. “Very soon we will make arrests.”

However, the admission that the report was only made after the fact has raised concerns.

“The report was not immediately made to us. We only learnt about the assault later,” Lomuk added. 

In a statement on Thursday, the Law Society of Kenya called on the DCI and the National Police Service to conduct "prompt, impartial, and comprehensive investigations to establish the full facts and circumstances surrounding the death of Mr Imbukwa." 

Mical emotionally recounted the harrowing hours between receiving the first call and watching her brother slip away, pain and horror moments that were compounded by

“We had just buried our cousin on the 17th,” she said, her voice heavy with grief. “Then on Sunday, around 11am, I received a call from someone who identified himself as a police officer. He told me they had found someone injured and that he had mentioned my name.”

The officer handed the phone to the injured man. What followed was a chilling exchange that would be their last meaningful conversation.

“I asked him, ‘Tom, is it you?’ and he said yes,” she recalled. “But his voice didn’t sound like him. When I asked why, he responded, ‘It’s painful.’”

From that moment, a frantic rescue effort began. Relatives rushed to the scene at Harambee Sacco estate, confirming it was indeed Imbukwa, badly injured and bleeding. 

According to the family, he was first taken to Mbagathi Hospital, where scans revealed the extent of his injuries.

“They told us he had five fractured ribs and internal bleeding,” Mical said. “Later, another scan showed the bleeding was in his lungs.”

Due to the severity of his condition, Mbagathi referred him to Kenyatta National Hospital, where his condition deteriorated rapidly.

When Mical arrived at the hospital that night, she found her brother in distress, writhing in pain and agony, lying in a surgical room with little immediate attention.

“My heart sank when I saw him,” she said, deeply shaken even as she gathered herself and continued, “his eye was badly injured… it looked like they wanted to tear it out. He was struggling; he couldn’t settle.”