Kenya Watchdog Probes Possible Police Link To Dumped Bodies
Kenya’s police watchdog said it is investigating whether there is any police involvement in the gruesome discovery of mutilated bodies dumped in a Nairobi rubbish tip.
The Independent Police Oversight Authority (IPOA) is also looking into claims of abductions and unlawful arrests of demonstrators who went missing after widespread anti-government protests.
Police initially said the severely mutilated bodies of six women tied up in plastic bags were found on Friday dumped a garbage site in an abandoned quarry in Mukuru, in the south of the capital.
A man points towards a body while standing with others on the edge of a dumpsite where six bodies were found at the landfill in Mukuru slum, Nairobi, on July 12, 2024.
The 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 dumpsite was less than 100 metres (yards) from a police station.
Kenyan police are under sharp scrutiny after dozens of people were killed during the demonstrations last month, with rights group accusing officers of using excessive force.
National police chief Japhet Koome, the target of much public anger over the protest deaths, has resigned after less than two years in the post, Kenya’s presidency announced Friday.
He is the latest head to roll as President William Ruto scrambles to contain the worst crisis of his rule, triggered by deeply unpopular proposed tax hikes.
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.
Kenyan police are feared and face frequent allegations of extrajudicial killings but are seldom convicted.
