Kenya must investigate mutilated bodies dumped in quarry: HRW
The discovery came as Kenya was gripped by deadly government protests, with rights groups alleging police brutality and the abduction of prominent protesters.
FILE: People stand on the edge of a dumpsite where six bodies were found at the landfill in Mukuru slum, Nairobi, on 12 July 2024. Picture: SIMON MAINA / AFP
NAIROBI, KENYA - Human Rights Watch urged Kenya on Monday to conclude an investigation into mutilated bodies found in a quarry last year, and address claims that police blocked recovery efforts.
There was shock and disgust last July in the east African country when 10 butchered female corpses, and other unidentified body parts, were recovered, mostly by volunteers, from an abandoned quarry in the Mukuru slum in the capital Nairobi.
The discovery came as Kenya was gripped by deadly government protests, with rights groups alleging police brutality and the abduction of prominent protesters.
Authorities promised swift action and quickly arrested a man who they said had confessed to murdering and dismembering 42 women.
But around a month later, the suspect escaped police custody and disappeared without a trace.
"No prosecution has been initiated either for the bodies or for this escape," HRW and the Mukuru Community Center for Social Justice said in a joint statement.
HRW said volunteers at the quarry alleged that police officers had forced them to stop retrieving body parts.
"Rather than obstruct the retrieval of bodies, Kenyan police should promptly and thoroughly investigate the circumstances surrounding dumping of bodies at the quarry," said HRW's researcher Otsieno Namwaya.
The rights organisation, working with the Mukuru Community Social Justice Centre, interviewed victims' families, activists, a police officer, and residents.
Following the retrieval of the first load of bodies, residents said the Directorate of Criminal Intelligence (DCI), the anti-riot General Service Unit (GSU), and police made a "concerted effort to stop the retrieval, including ordering volunteers to stop or risk being charged with the deaths."
One volunteer alleged that he had endured two attempted abductions following his work in the quarry.
"I know that if I ever get arrested again, even routinely, I might never come out alive. They have marked me," he said.
The discovery of the bodies in Mukuru threw a spotlight on police as they were found just 100 metres (yards) from a police station.
Kenya's police watchdog said last year it was looking into whether there was any police involvement or a "failure to act to prevent" the killings.