John Kiiru’s head was bludgeoned with blunt objects, causing internal bleeding into the brain, an autopsy shows.
The father of two had his skull was fractured and he suffered a concussion, causing him to die.
Signs of struggle in self-defence and to free himself from his attackers were all evident, the report showed.
Kiiru, 38, was killed on Wednesday night last week in Kayole after allegedly being arrested by police officers for flouting curfew rules.
He was said to be outside his house past 10pm.
The people beat him to a pulp, leaving him for the dead in the cold Nairobi night.
By morning, members of the public discovered his lifeless body and hell broke loose in the area.
The postmortem was conducted on Wednesday at Mama Lucy hospital.
Speaking to the Star, Kiiru’s wife Esther Wanjiru said her husband will be buried this Saturday.
Though they were separated at the time of his death for two months, Wanjiru said, they were in process of reconciliation so they get back to living together.
But her hopes of re-uniting with the father of her two children slipped off her hands, for good.
She said that on the fateful day at around 12.30am, she received a ‘please call me’ text message from Kiiru.
“When I called, he told me to rush where he was because he had been beaten and injured badly,” Wanjiru said. That’s the last she heard from him.
She is not sure whether it is the police that killed her husband, she said, demanding that the current investigations unravel the truth.
“All I want is justice for my husband. Let the people responsible pay for the blood of my husband, whether they are police or not, to pay,” Wanjiru said.
The following day on Thursday, members of the public immediately attributed the death to the police, setting off a violent protest that saw roads in the area blocked and bonfires lit.
Police later collected the body after minutes of running battles with the protesters who were now hurling stones at them.
Tales from residents who claimed to be witnesses indicated that Kiiru had been apprehended by police officers while heading home, blocking and beating him up at Tushauriane stage.
The rider of the motorbike he was aboard, however, escaped, residents said. Kiiru himself was also a rider.
Some protesters took advantage of the mayhem to loot property for several minutes as police withdrew in the confrontation.
A number of pedestrians were also attacked and robbed. The cops called for reinforcements to address the situation.
Nairobi police commander Augustine Nthumbi said they will investigate and take necessary action.
“There is no need to cause more trouble. It will be addressed,” he said.