Oliver Mathenge
6 November 2007
Nairobi — About 500 bodies of young men were deposited by police at various mortuaries countrywide between June and October, this year, a report reveals.
Preliminary findings by the Kenya National Commission on Human Rights (KNCHR) show that almost all the bodies bear execution signs of a bullet behind the head exiting at the forehead.
The study, which the commission calls preliminary, cites reports provided by pathologists as evidence that all the killings were a result of close-range shooting. It further suggests that it was likely that they were carried out by police officers, arguing that most of the people killed had been reportedly arrested.
War on Mungiki
Presenting the findings to journalists in his Nairobi office yesterday, KNCHR chairman Maina Kiai said the investigations suggest that the killings were linked to "the war on the Mungiki" declared by the Government in June, this year.
"It is also noteworthy that this is the same period when a large number of people disappeared without trace," he read from the report, and added that police had failed to prove whether or not they were involved.
The report adds that the police register at Nairobi's City Mortuary showed that 233 bodies were brought in by police in June and July after Internal Security minister John Michuki declared a crackdown on the Mungiki.
Mr Kiai said this sharply contrasted with 189, the number brought in by the force from January to May.
The report indicates that 454 bodies were dumped at the mortuary, eight in Machakos and 11 in Naivasha.
Mr Kiai said the findings were made from evidence given by relatives of some of the people who had disappeared and government officials.
The commission also used statistics from police registers at various mortuaries.
The report gives accounts of interviews between the commission and the witnesses.
Mr Kiai said the commission was demanding that the Government launch immediate and comprehensive investigations, and that it hires an international panel of police experts from South Africa, Ghana and Rwanda, "since the Kenya police are clearly incapable or unwilling to investigate".
Although it was not clear who did the actual shooting, circumstantial evidence points to police, he said, adding that the force was reluctant to carry out further investigations or even meet the commission.
"We were even to meet the police commissioner today (yesterday), but we were kept waiting at Vigilance House (police headquarters in Nairobi) for so long that we decided to come and give the report," he pointed out.
Since the investigations started, KNCHR has had difficulties with police who have refused to divulge information or cooperate with the commission, says the report.
The commissioners were later informed that the police chief was meeting media owners in an effort to block the report from getting to the public.
According to the findings, most of the evidence shows that police had arrested most victims but there were no records to that effect.
"While almost all reports that the missing persons were arrested by persons who identified themselves as policemen, there is no official record of their arrest," the report says.
Mr Kiai said most of the people interviewed said the arrested people were rounded up by specialised police squads and, in most cases, the Kwe Kwe squad. People whose relatives had been arrested could not confirm the arrests as the incidents were never recorded in the occurrence books at the stations they were taken to.
The report also states that a senior provincial administration official revealed to the commission that he had consulted leaders and police in the Ngong-Kiserian area over the dumping of bodies in the area.
However, it says top police officers in the area denied the claims, saying that they did not know anything about the bodies.
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