Teen boda boda rider left police cells, vomited blood, died

For two days, 19-year-old Erick Otieno pleaded with his family to get him out of police custody.

On the phone, he cried as he described the pain. When his elder brother finally saw him inside the cells at Muthaiga Police Station, Erick could barely stand.

Minutes after his release on cash bail late Sunday night, he vomited blood in front of his sister, struggled to walk and died on the way to hospital.

A postmortem has since revealed that he suffered massive internal bleeding caused by severe abdominal injuries, raising fresh questions about what happened to the young boda boda rider during the nearly 36 hours he spent in police custody.

His family now wants investigators to establish how the teenager sustained injuries so extensive that doctors found more than two litres of blood inside his abdomen.

Erick, the second youngest in a family of eight children, had only recently managed to recover the motorcycle he used to earn a living after it had been repossessed over loan arrears.

According to his eldest brother, Emmanuel Sakis Otieno, the teenager had struck luck through sports betting over the weekend, recovered the motorcycle and even shared part of his winnings with family and friends.

"He gave me Sh1,000 that morning and even gave some of my friends a little money," Emmanuel recalled. "He had told me he had won big and was taking the motorcycle for servicing."