Depression has been cited as among the possible causes of death of former Mlolongo Officer Commanding Station (OCS) Stephen Lelei.
Lelei was celebrated for freeing tens of people during the Westgate Mall attack.
Chief Inspector Lelei died at the Kiambu Hospital Saturday, June 15 after battling among others depression.
His family and friends said he developed depression which worsened in the past months.
Before his death, he looked frail, disturbed, and stressed.
His friends and colleagues mourned his death.
This was after he was charged with the murder of two people in Mlolongo Town.
Lelei and his former colleague at Mlolongo police station Fredrick Leliman were charged that they killed Jacob Mwenda and Elizabeth Nduku in 2016 in Mlolongo Town.
Lelei and Leliman faced an additional charge of unlawful use of a firearm contrary to Section 26 A (1) (a) of the Firearms Act.
The late Lelei was among nine police officers who were celebrated by the state for the heroic acts during the Westgage attack in 2013.
Mwenda and Nduku died on May 27, 2016 under unclear circumstances.
Police in Mlolongo said they might have been hit by a stray bullet as they pursued a suspected robber whom they killed.
IPOA opened an inquiry and recommended Lelei and Leliman be charged.
When he was arrested and charged with the murder, he had been moved to Nairobi Area command.
Lelei had also served as an OCS in Mlolongo, Industrial Area, Pangani, Soweto and Kabete.
As the commander at Kabete, he managed to contain violent robberies in general.
Before the September 21, 2013 terrorist attack on Westgate Mall in Nairobi, Lelei was a station commander at Kabete.
He shot to fame after the attack as he was one of the nine police officers feted for their bravery in confronting the gunmen, who killed 67 people in the raid.
Lelei was among police officers decorated with a Silver Star (SS) recognition by former President Uhuru Kenyatta.
He was on patrol in the area when he heard there were thieves at the Mall and decided to go and confront them only to realize they were hardened terrorists.
As one of the first armed responders, he had taken up the role of commander as he was the senior-most officer on site at the time.
During the attack, he was shot in the right leg as he led a hastily assembled team of officers in the battle against the heavily armed terrorists.
Still, he soldiered on until reinforcements arrived from the General Service Unit, Regular and Administration Police and the Kenya Defence Forces.
Lelei was later transferred to Busia as the officer in charge of the weighbridge before returning to Nairobi’s Industrial Area Police Station.
He was later deployed to Mlolongo as the area police commander, where he cracked down on highway robbers targeting transit-goods vehicles, as well as commercial sex workers, illicit brewers and murderers.
About a year after the Westgate Mall attack, the policeman was in the news after his wife Matrida Muroso died of severe burns when their car caught fire at 3am on Thika Road near Safari Park Hotel.
The couple was driving on the highway when the car suddenly caught fire and Lelei jumped out.
His wife did not escape.
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