Kenya's police watchdog has launched an inquiry into possible police involvement in mutilated bodies found dumped in a rubbish tip in the Mukuru slums of Nairobi.
Police initially said the severely mutilated bodies of six women tied up in plastic bags were found on Friday.
The corpses had been dumped in a landfill site in an abandoned quarry in Mukuru, in the south of the capital.
But the Independent Police Oversight Authority (IPOA) said in a statement later that the remains of at least nine people had been recovered, seven of them female, and called for swift investigations to identify them.
"The bodies, wrapped in bags and secured by nylon ropes, had visible marks of torture and mutilation," it said, noting that the rubbish tip was less than 100 metres from a police station.
Images on local television showed people using ropes to heave sacks containing the human remains from rubbish-strewn water in the quarry.
21 days to deliver results
Kenyan authorities are analysing samples to identify the deceased and investigations are underway.
The Directorate of Criminal Investigations said preliminary investigations suggested all the victims had been killed in the same manner, without elaborating.
Local activists are calling for immediate, thorough investigations.
"Most of them have decomposed but one was fresh," said Miriam Nyamuita, an activist with the Mukuru Community Justice Centre. "We don't know if we can relate it to [the anti-government] protests or it's femicide since most of them are women."
The Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions has directed the police to submit the results of their inquiry within 21 days.
Police chief resigns
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The IPOA is also looking into claims of abductions and unlawful arrests of demonstrators who went missing after widespread anti-government protests over planned tax hikes.
The Kenya National Commission on Human Rights (KNCHR) said 39 people were killed in the protests and has accused officers of using "excessive and disproportionate" force against protesters.
National police chief Japhet Koome, the target of much public anger over the protest deaths, resigned on Friday after less than two years in the post.
The resignation came the day after President William Ruto fired all but two of his cabinet, bowing to the demands of protesters.
Koome's deputy Douglas Kanja has been made acting police chief, Ruto's office said.
Little accountability
Ruto is scrambling to contain the worst crisis of his rule since coming to power in 2022.
Crowds that gathered on Friday at the site where the bodies were found were chanting "Ruto must go", the slogan of the wave of protests led by young Gen-Z Kenyans.
Ruto said in an event hosted on social media platform X last week that reported abductions were regrettable and that any officers found responsible would be held to account.
However, despite facing frequent allegations of extrajudicial killings, Kenyan police are seldom convicted.
Kenya'sparliament established the IPOA in 2011 to provide civilian scrutiny of a powerful institution also reputed to be among the country's most corrupt.
(with newswires)
