Outrage as Missing Nairobi Man Dies in Mombasa Police Cell Under Suspicious Circumstances
The family of a 26-year-old Nairobi man who went missing earlier this month is demanding answers after he died under mysterious circumstances at Mombasa Central Police Station on Thursday night.
Simon Warui, a young father of one, had been reported missing from Umoja 1, Nairobi, on September 14, 2025. His wife filed a missing person’s report at Kamkunji Police Station and a search was launched. Days later, the family was shocked to learn Warui had resurfaced nearly 500km away in Mombasa.
On Wednesday, he was spotted at the Catholic Cathedral Church along Nkurumah Road, looking disoriented and confused. According to a nun who met him, Warui was “not in his right mind”. Security officers at the church handed him over to a priest who gave him food before police and DCI officers arrived.
By Thursday morning, Warui was booked at Central Police Station, reportedly to be taken to Nairobi where he faced charges of stealing Sh170,000 from an electronic shop in Ngara where he worked. Hours later, he was dead – found lying in a pool of blood in the washroom.
Police said Warui fell while trying to climb a wall in the cells. But his family and rights groups have rejected this explanation, calling it a cover-up.
“We are now wondering what happened to him while in the police cells,” his cousin Godfrey Gichuru told reporters. He said Warui had even managed to call his wife and brother using an unknown number from Mombasa to update them on his whereabouts at the Cathedral.
The family rushed to Mombasa but were devastated to learn his body had already been taken to Coast General Hospital mortuary.
A post-mortem revealed Warui had a fractured neck and internal bleeding which led to oxygen deprivation in the brain. The report described his injuries as “consistent with a fall from a height” but activists are questioning whether such a fall was even possible in a police cell.
“We have not seen this wall at Central Police. How high is it? If someone falls, do they die instantly? Where were the officers manning the cells?” asked Mombasa youth activist Edwin Shamir.
Friends who went to Mombasa said they were denied access to him even when they brought food. “When we went to Mombasa we knew he was alive. Whether he died by suicide or was murdered, we need justice,” said his friend Daniel Gicheha.
A police source said Warui removed his shoes and cap before entering the washroom, where moments later, officers heard a loud thud and found him bleeding from the nose and mouth. But the family and human rights defenders say the official story doesn’t add up.
The Kenya National Human Rights Commission (KNHRC) and Muslims for Human Rights (MUHURI) have joined the calls for accountability and are demanding that police release the CCTV footage from the station.
On social media, Kenyans are outraged, comparing Warui’s death to other unresolved cases of police brutality. One user, @princemwitiii, asked: “How do you die in a place where you should feel the safest?” Another, @JESSEGITAU88200, wrote: “This is another Ojwang-style killing. Why was the body moved to the mortuary before IPOA processed the scene? Where is the CCTV footage?”
For now, Warui’s family is left grieving and demanding answers. As one neighbour put it: “This family deserves answers, not stories.”
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Outrage as Missing Nairobi Man Dies in Mombasa Police Cell Under Suspicious Circumstances