Category: Investigations

Homosexuality remains one of the most prohibited if not one of the most feared topics to touch on in Africa if not Kenya and this is largely due to the conservative nature of the continent. Kenyan law currently prohibits “carnal knowledge against the order of nature,” labeling it a felony that is punishable with 14 years in prison.

Despite it being outlawed in Kenya, regionally we boast of the most robust and progressive judicial system that made history recently being the first to nullify a presidential election in August. In a case at the High court that opened Friday in a crowded Nairobi courtroom. The judges had to change to a different room to accommodate the large crowd. The court started listening to a case that would eventually decriminalize homosexuality and eventually make such relationships legal.

We’ve observed in the recent times that same-sex relationship is considered an abomination and most of the ties are tied outside the country especially in the U.S. where homosexual relationships are allowed. Unlike neighboring countries, homosexuality is outlawed in Kenya but adherence is not as crude compared to a country like Uganda where gays are spotted, marked and targeted for abuse and elimination. Kenya is generally liberal.

On Friday, a case was lodged at the High court that would eventually see the decriminalization of gay relations. The case argues that this law, which can be traced to British colonial law from the turn of the century, is unconstitutional.

Activists say that laws that prohibit homosexuality lead to the harassment, abuse, and discrimination of the LGBT community.

“The case before Kenya’s High Court seeking to decriminalize consensual same-sex conduct is of monumental significance for Kenya and beyond,” Neela Ghoshal, senior researcher in the LGBT Rights program at Human Rights Watch.

“A positive ruling would affirm that same-gender-loving Kenyans are just as deserving of equality, privacy, and dignity as anyone else. ”

“The courageous Kenyan activists and ordinary people who brought this case are a model and an inspiration to LGBTQ people and their allies throughout Africa.”

In 2016, Kenyan courts ruled that forced anal testing of men was constitutional and could be used as evidence in a trial of men accused of homosexuality.

A 2014 parliamentary report found that between 2010-2014, the Kenyan government prosecuted 595 cases of homosexuality.

Considering the spaces visible, Kenya which is deeply buried in conservative set up might as well break the walls an become the first African country to legitimize homosexuality. South Africa is fairly considerate and has open gay relationships. Unlike other countries like Uganda where one can easily get killed for publicly getting out of the closet, Kenya is on the verge of giving in and allowing such arrangements.

Kenya was recently ranked top by Google for being high in searching gay pornography directing at a fact that most people are curious on the topic or silently incorporated. As to whether the courts might listen and legitimize homosexual relations its only time that can tell.

Many Kenyans always have ambitions of greener pastures so they’re ever looking for opportunities mostly abroad, the unemployment rate is at its all-time high in the country. Apart from employment, there are several reasons for travels and this why out airports are ever busy. They say getting a visa to say the U.S. is as easy as a camel going through a syringe and if you thought that is hard then try getting a passport first, a walk over melted metal.

Immigration Department in Kenya is killing many ambitions in Kenya through a systemic rot that range from Corruption, Poor service delivery, very poor communication and outright incompetence in terms of adherence to timelines.

Such is the case of Paul Mathenge who lost a scholarship from St Georges University, Grenada. “I applied for my passport on 14th Nov 2017 and as late as today the 18th Feb 2018, getting it seems a pipe dream. I was to be admitted on Jan 5, 2018. I constantly enquired about the status of the passport everytime getting the same response that it was still in process. I was replaced from the scholarship class on Feb 8, because I didn’t show up for a month.That is the price I paid for ImmigrationDept incompetence. I lost something I worked so hard to achieve.It was a deep heartbreak.I have realized very many Kenyans share my plight.” Paul painfully narrated his story to Kenya Insights.

He continues, “Getting a scholarship was a culmination of years of hard work and relentless mailing of Donors. I sometimes used to forego lunch so that I could use the cash in a cyber. But all this rough and teary journey has been taken away by the incompetence of the Immigration Dept. My dream of getting an education is dead. Dead but not forgotten. I will rise up again, dust myself up but Immigration dept is killing many dreams.”

We embarked on an investigational path to unravel the mysteries behind this and realized Paul’s tribulations is not unique , the cases are replicated across the country. Immigration Dept Kenya is the alter of bribery. While others wait for even sux7 months to get a passport from the date of application, you can secure a passport in 4 days if you are, financially, politically and ethnically correct. Cases of missing files, printed passports missing unless you pay a fee, constant system outages are some of the evils. There are cases where the passport has been printed but held back until one pays the bribe, a not yet printed passport would spring out of the blues should you succumb and pay the officials bribes.

Kenyans apply for passports in their thousands on a daily basis making Immigration Department one of the busiest government’s branches and with this comes the curse and corruption opportunities. It is so bad that when you walk into Nyayo House for a passport, corruption starts at the entrance where the security officers who’re part of this drenching cartel will ask if you want your passport ‘itoke haraka’ obviously you’ll say yes and just like that you walk into their trap. You’ll be directed to persons inside the building who’ll ensure a speedy processing, this is the corruption path you’ve taken.

Ideally, application for a normal 32-page passport costs Sh.4,500 and should take an average of two weeks to be out, this is the legal route but surprise on you, you’ll be damned to sit comfortably thinking it will be that easy. Corruption at Immigration is shamelessly so open that on placing your application at the offices you’ll be asked with a straight face if unataka itoke haraka, at an extra ‘fee’ your passport can be fast-tracked to be out in a week and some even deliver within the day depending on how much you pay. Bribes ranges and mostly they ask for Sh,30,000. With ultimate arrogance and impunity show off, they’ll give you the option of giving the bribe and remain assured of your passport or leave you to go the clean way and wait for a lifetime for your passport to be out.

From our investigations, files that are “not paid for” that is the forms whose applicants paid the standard fee without bribes are shoved aside and barely leave those desks for processing. You’ll be at home counting days thinking the application that you placed at the immigration office in Kisumu is being processed yet, in reality, it’s in the dusty desks in the same place simply because you didn’t follow the ‘due process’ of giving bribe. Your visits for collection will keep on being postponed with ‘still under processing’ lie until when you succumb and buy ‘tea’. Everything is unreal until you find yourself applying for a passport believe me.

We’ve also gathered that the department’s officials work with a stream of brokers who have coined a new way of preying on their victims. Immigration Department social media pages are awash with complaints, angry and desperate applicants who get the same old lie of passports still being processed. So here’s what happens, the brokers who’re camping on these pages, identify a target who has placed a complaint then privately contact them with a promise of offering help for speedy tracking and delivery of the passport. The tracking portal is also faulty with no much on receivers end to count.

During our undercover investigations where we posted a fake complaint on Immigration Department’s Facebook page, a man identifying himself as Munene privately contacted promising to help me get the passport under 24 hours. He gave his number and we talked on the phone, he claimed to be working at Attorney General’s office where they deal mostly with diplomatic passports but  has the right muscles to ensure my passport would be out by evening same day (we talked in the morning). This was to happen if I gave kitu kidogo of Sh.30,000 my goodness, on top of the standard passport fee, you add extra Sh30K see how expensive it is to get that document?

Because of desperation due to time limits to travel, many Kenyans are forced to play to this evil card since this is the norm now and there’s nothing you can do about it, one official working at their offices in Mombasa told me there’s nothing, absolutely nothing that can be done to stop this however much we expose the rot. An excuse given is there are only three printing machines in the country and two are down leaving only one in operation and which is unable to take the heavy workload for the new generation passports.

But corruption at Immigration didn’t start the other day and in 2016, the department announced online application as a measure to curb corruption but this has done little to stop the menace since one will have to physically present the downloaded forms for biometrics and other verifications and there then, you fall right into their arms.

Those who play by the cards and give bribes ends up with the document in the shortest time, those who stick by standard rules pay the ultimate price of a frustrating journey trying to get a passport. In the case of Paul, a young farmer who lives in Taita but had to travel to Mombasa for the passport, he had used about Sh50,000 on his unsuccessful journey. This was on endless trips to Mombasa and staying in hotels during these times since he wasn’t a resident. Mark you, he refused to pay the bribe so he was kept waiting meaning more and more trips, now if he played along at last by paying the bribe of Sh30,000 he’d have used Sh80,000 also note being a small-scale farmer, much of this money would come from relatives as a loan. How many people out there are going through same tribulations? Many!

Embedded corruption at these offices continues to kill many ambitions and relationships due to deliberate incompetence, we’ve established the department has the capacity to sufficiently handle the number of applications but instead opt to play monkey business to leave open space for bribery which as now remains the surest way to get a passport in a snap. It is sad that a document that should be given in standard route is a cash cow venue. The corrupt officials give the nature of desperation for the document, will continue preying on applicants. The cartel is firmly embedded that they boast around chest thumping how nothing can be done to dismantle it. Not unless the pigs start flying and president cracks his whip, Kenyans have many more monkeys to strangle including immigration impunity and toxic corruption.

The annihilated IEBC ICT manager Chris Chege Msando was officially abducted around Nairobi Mater hospital South B estate on Friday July 29th night he went missing, tortured and had his last breadth.

Msando was last captured driving his car towards South B estate before the tall slim guy took over the car, wore Msando’s shirt and pulled down shade screen to hide face identity from the CCTV surveillance and drove it out to Thika Road-Roysambu near TRM mall where it was ironically discovered two days later by one controversial MP Moses Kuria.

The 44, Chris Chege Msando was murdered on Friday but it was until Monday when his family was informed of his body at City Mortuary after thunderous search the whole weekend.

The suspicious identity of the tall slim guy who as per description by the residence’s nightshift Guard Godfrey Ayugi commences from that misery Friday night.

Simple Logics that Unmasks the Assassin.

1.Daniel Kinyua the NeuroTech Services Enterprise Manager and a Relative to top Government official who left Chris Msando in the club for a club in Kilimani for a drink when he had told a family friend he was on his way to Naivasha.

Something to note:

CEO Daniel ‘Dan’ Kinyua the new suspect whose twitter account handle has been identified as @daneurotech has been dodging speaking to the media who’re public watchdog and he has even warned his friends and family not to speak to the media or anybody in matters related to Msando’s murder. It’s 6 months after the launch of investigation on Msando’s murder and only the first month CID special team led by its Director Ndegwa Muhoro and Kenya Police were consistent in giving updates on the doing of the Msando’s case but why up-to-date police is still coating Dan Kinyua from media interview when at no point has he been locked for Msando’s murder which suggests he is mere in the case and which raises eyebrows why is he not allowed to contribute to public interest case when his chances of being linked to Msando’s murder is ‘believed to be of lower portion’.

Did he really go Kilimani when he shortchanged his close friends and family that he was on his way to Naivasha to oversee his businesses and at what time did they part ways Msando?

2.In what Capacity and Position was Gatundu South MP Moses Kuria become first to be informed of Msando’s abandoned Discovery 4 Land Rover in Roysambu when there is an area Member of Parliament, Member of County Assembly and area Police.

Moses Kuria’s presence was already a show of Political Elimination Game script and political mileage script.

Moses Kuria drove to the Crime scene, tampered with fingerprints when he was pseudo-inspecting the car for photo session. But since is he state machinery, he had vowed he owed nobody neither explanation nor apology suggesting he is above the law.

3.When all Suspects linked to Msando’s murder were all released on bond by the court and that Msando’s car was still being withheld at CID headquarters contrary to policy, Inspector General Boinnet claimed in an Interview with KTN TV’s Yvonne Okwara he was not aware..how is that possible for the head of police who was spearheading the investigation. The police evidence presented before the court and to Director of Public Prosecution couldn’t hold waters was the fact.

Who was Boinnet Covering up…

4.A top IEBC official introduced the 21yr old medical student Carol to Chris Msando barely 3 months to their murder.
The same top ranking IEBC official’s aide was assigned duty to track Msando’s movement the day he went missing.

Who is this Top IEBC Official..

5.The tall slim IEBC official who introduced Carol to Msando, is the same one who invited her to club number 7 at then called Msando who was in Anniversary towers ground floor bar to join them. What was the business with Carol when there were no internship jobs? If they were on a date which is private, why would top IEBC official join them? And how was Carol, a medical student’s profession related to ICT internship?

6.Denis Onsarigo, the daring investigative journalist through his popular programme ‘The Lead’, had talked about a CCTV clip given to him by insiders showing the killers & IEBC officials mentioned and suddenly when he had planned to air the programme, it was delayed or could have been possibly cancelled by the powerful entities from the media group which later turned out to be just a postponement. The content could have unearthed the true assassins of Msando on just first round hit. Thereafter the content was distorted and edited, covering up the murderers but despite that, the world appreciates little they clinched.

7.Thika Road Mall(TRM) and the neighbourhood where Msando’s car was dumped had CCTV all over but they became inactive on the part when the car was dumped…the coverup script.

8.Alleged Msando’s reply text to his wife Eve Msando suggested he had not arrived home when he was already past time. Thereafter, he never replied or called as his wife had advised him.

9.Msando’s wife as usual knew her husband Msando would be at home by 15minutes meaning 00:46 from the time they had communicated at 00:31 when he was almost leaving.

By the time Msando is alleged to had replied was 00:58 when:
1.He ought to have arrived home
2.It wasn’t possible to chat while driving.

10.The last text sent by Msando (Sawa Jaber n Mum) were out of Chris Musando’s form of normal text according to his wife. By this time,the assassins were already in control of his phone.

11.Msando’s Personal Assistant was never called in for questioning.

Why?

12.After Kenya insights desk received reports on the contradicting initial police report that the distance between Chris Msando’s body and Carol’s were just 500m apart in the thicket Kiambu Forest which they were dumped, we came to disqualify that lie after authenticating in all aspects and that KTN’s the Lead investigation team was compatible with our team in the fact that the two bodies were actually 1Km apart.

13.Records at City Mortuary showed that the two bodies were brought in on a Saturday morning with Carol’s first at 10:30am then minutes later Msando’s whose was cleaned up and booked in a private wing which only accommodates fully identified bodies. Who would have booked his body in the private wing? Who knew him? When the morgue attendants rejected they had spotted his body while the police said the contrary.

If any Kenyan Common man had faith in Justice system then we would not need investigative journalism sources coming inn.

We’re still fighting for this System.The price is affordable in solidarity.

..’If someone steals your cow, you spot it in his compound, head to the nearest police station and inform the police about it and they do nothing about it..do you still ask who stole your cow?’

From the pieces of investigation and indepth analysis,we are satisfied that the tall slim guy is– The most controversial Top IEBC commissioner and to add the list of suspects is this relative to top Government official Daniel Kinyua.

Boda riders have slowly been morphing into a dangerous gang with a great sense of self-entitlement, for a group that operates like criminal gang in a predominantly lawless space, they’re the law unto themselves. For them, they’re the prosecutors and judges and above it all, they’re always right. The riders have set a bad precedence and reputation across the country such that their operations have become a security concern.

Weeks ago a bus belonging to Otange Transport was reduced into ashes in HomaBay by a group of boda-boda rider. The incident that occurred in the morning involved a rider probably high on marijuana a diet drug in the region, rammed into the stationary bus injuring the rider and the drunk passenger he was ferrying, both were seriously injured. Within a short period, other riders surrounded the bus and without consideration that it was their colleague on the wrong, they went ahead and set ablaze the bus and in the line burning passengers luggage as well.

Such scenarios have been replicated across the country where the riders flaw the law, cause accidents only to play victims. Often when one has been caught up on the wrong side, they signal their colleagues who quickly surround the victim. Very common in Nairobi, a boda-boda rider would hit a motorist only to surround, harass even to the extent of violence the motorist until they extort him for freedom. Imagine how painful it is paying for being on the right, arguing or lengthening talks with them will only escalate to more harmful end.

A few years back the then Senate Speaker Ekwe Ethuro was heading his Kitengela home when a boda-boda rider intentionally scratched on one of the cars in his convoy, as tradition, group over fifty riders surrounded the convoy demanding ‘compensation’. They didn’t know it was him inside and when one of them noticed him, he instructed the driver to speed off, they then followed him in droves until they again cornered the convoy. The irate riders demanded cash or they threatened to burn down all the cars. Sensing danger, fire was opened and two of the riders were shot dead at point-blank sending away the rest. This is how they operate, extortion.

Common in the Western region of Kenya, Boda Boda riders are more than just that, they call the shots, in the political season, if they don’t endorse your candidature which is mostly done through bribery then your bid would be dead on arrival, it is a cartel that must be bribed. Politicians love using them as well. If you have scores to settle with an opponent all to need to do is hire these boys most who’re criminals masquerading as riders.

In the half of December, at least 200 people have lost their lives in road accidents substantially by matatus but boda-boda has also claimed many lives. It has almost become a synonymous line with most accidents occurring when a driver was trying to avoid hitting a boda-boda rider, they’re often on the wrong side.

Traffic rules are the last thing they observe, they’ll change lanes, make deadly turns and entrances with no care. Most robberies and executions in the city have been attributed to motorbike riders, it has become a real concern such that some high-end estates have totally banned entrance of boda boda given their criminal reputation. A good number of criminals are camouflaged as operators, several security reports have highlighted.

In a country with 56% unemployment score, Boda Boda industry has undoubtedly offered sizeable opportunities, however, slowly and steadily, this is turning into a country’s menace with operators running like a criminal racket. Impunity exhibited shouldn’t be allowed to persist and strict rule adherence needs to be enforced, if not, we’re breeding a beast that soon and very soon will turn uncontrollable, will turn around and devour. If we’re to contain high criminal activities, minimize road accidents then discipline must be instilled, the law must be applied in full force. Until then, we’re under Boda Boda terrorism.

A diplomatic impasse that has seen four Kenyans Jailed In South Sudan unjustly since 2016 seems to be edging closer to the breakthrough and consequently the release of the four. This follows a series of talks between the two governments.

Kenya Insights has learned of a secret meeting between the governments of Kenya and South Sudan and the families of the jailed. A senior officer privy to the finer details of the recent developments intimates to Kenya Insights that the President is determined to put the matter into rest and had personally assigned the Foreign Affairs PS Monica Juma to secure the release of the held Kenyans. This comes out as a step in the president’s ploy to lay down his legacy.

The PS took up the matter and visited the four. According to our sources, the freedom could become sooner than later with greatest indications being as early as this first week of December. However, there are genuine reasons not to celebrate too soon as this isn’t the first kind of such talks. The CS, PS have both been in similar talks that died sooner without success. The latest talks, however, looks more promising than ever boosting the hopes of their release given the advanced levels of negotiations.

President Uhuru dissolved the cabinet and is expected to name a new team in coming days. Many are expected to face the boot over performance quotient. Monica could as well use this opportunity to lobby for a reappointment as the PS even though close sources worry about their harsh, unhealthy rivalry and working conditions with her CS Ambassador Amina. Should Monica be reappointed, the release of these Kenyans need to be ensured and that it doesn’t remain one of the lobbying tales. Families of the jailed have been in agony and mental torture, they need their sons back home. They deserve happiness and freedom. There has been reluctance from the Foreign Affairs office to breakthrough hopefully the circle doesn’t continue.

On the 13th day of June 2016, life took a shocking, unexpected turn when four Kenyans who were working for South Sudanese government officials were sentenced to life imprisonment of 72 years in a puzzling legal process. Clueless of what was going on, the four Kenyans were victims of a great war within the office of the president in what has turned out to be a fabricated corruption case within the agencies but a power measuring and neutralizing war amongst the officials including President Salva Kiir.

The genesis of this whole case is all Concoctions and trumped-up charges in the form of “Intelligence Report,” and more of Conspiracy acts by a group of Powerful individuals in the Office of the President. Their goal was to scratch off Former Chief Administrator Mayen Wol Jong and Executive Director in the Office of the President, Yel Luol Koor from their positions. The Former Chief Administrator and Former Executive Director were barriers to these Powerful government officials and allies crooked multi-million business tenders with government through Office of the President.

The report was accusing the two senior individuals of squandering $500million from the office of the President by forging the signature and seal of the president to withdraw these sum from Ministry of Finance and Central bank of South Sudan.The $500million was alleged to have been deposited in John Agou’s bank account in Nairobi.In reaction this, On 29th May 2015 President Salva Kiir ordered the arrest of three above mentioned.John Agou and his employees who among them included 4 Kenyan Citizens were arrested while at the shop, Click Technologies limited owned by Agou.

These four Kenyans had no idea of what was going on.They were detained at the headquarters of the General Intelligence Bureau (GIB) as just ‘State Witnesses.’On 25th June 2015, President Salva Kiir suspended his two senior aides Chief Administrator Mayen Wol Jong and Executive Director Yel Luol Koor handing them over to GIB for investigations. On 2nd October 2015 in Nairobi -Kenya, where John Agou’s wife and his 2-year old son were residing, became a crime scene as his wife Susan Anyieth Chaat was kidnapped on her way to the prominent wedding of television personalities Betty Kyallo and Denis Okari were holding their event at Marula Manor in Karen.She was abducted by Officers from South Sudan National Security Service with the help of plan less Kenya Anti-Terrorism Police Unit(ATPU), and National Intelligence Service then handed over to South Sudan National Security Service officers in Nimule, a town at Uganda-S.Sudan border.

On Friday 29th of May 2015, four young Kenyan men are living and working in South Sudan namely; Boniface Chuma, Ravi Ghaghda, Antony Keya and Antony Mwadime were arbitrarily arrested by National Security in South Sudan from a company called Click Technologies. They were arbitrarily detained for nine months on one meal a day with no access to family or lawyers.

They were finally presented to Court on the 20th of February 2016 along with 12 south Sudanese for various charges which they did not commit; such as forgery, insult to the person of the president and misappropriation of funds among others.

The unfairness in court started from the very beginning when the judge set bail per person at $14 million USD. Their lawyer was forbidden to meet with his clients unless during the trial. Continuous intimidation to witnesses by National Security and exactly a month into the trial the lawyer, Kiir Chol was threatened at Gunpoint by National Security, whose written communication was snatched away from him and his clients’ and forced to drop the case.

Five months of Trial and the Kenyans had NO MENTION in court; this was acknowledged by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The court proceedings were conducted in Arabic which the Kenyans could not understand.

With the to and fro from government officials that bore no fruits, unfortunately, the 4 Kenyans along with 12 South Sudanese were sentenced to life imprisonment of 72 years on 13th June 2016.

Former Moi and Kibaki era minister Sally Kosgey is among hundreds of powerful people named in new International Consortium of Investigative Journalists leaks. Dubbed ‘Paradise Papers’ the leaks reveal confidential records of financial hideaways of the worlds iconic brands and powerful brokers.

The world’s biggest businesses, heads of state and global figures in politics, entertainment and sport who have sheltered their wealth in secretive tax havens are being revealed this week in a major new investigation into Britain’s offshore empires.

The details come from a leak of 13.4m files that expose the global environments in which tax abuses can thrive – and the complex and seemingly artificial ways the wealthiest corporations can legally protect their wealth.

Most of the documents – 6.8m – relate to a law firm and corporate services provider that operated together in 10 jurisdictions under the name Appleby. Last year, the “fiduciary” arm of the business was the subject of a management buyout and it is now called Estera.

The material, which has come from two offshore service providers and the company registries of 19 tax havens, was obtained by the German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung and shared by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists.

Paradise Papers says Moi-era head of Public Service Sally Kosgei used a secret Mauritian-registered firm to buy a $1 million (Sh103.66 million) apartment in Central London 16 years ago.

Also mentioned is former Deputy Chief Justice Kalpana Rawal. This is the second time Rawal features in the leaks. She was initially mentioned in the Panama Papers.

Cases of police extrajudicial killings have escalated in The past months since The August botched presidential elections. While the exact number of victims of police bullet remains unclear, what is clear is The police have used extreme force while dealing with opposition protesters. These had resulted in deaths, severe injuries, sexual offenses, a report by Kenya Human Rights Commission put sexual offenses cases they’ve handled in this period at sixty.

According to available statistics, about 70% of Kenyans boycotted the fresh elections on the 26th October, despite lowest turn out in history, IEBC held the election that majority steered off, the commission postponed elections in four counties in Nyanza citing security issues even though the reality is most parts of the counties boycotted. Nyanza and parts of Nairobi slums received biggest security deployment including the army. The past few days it has been nothing but mayhem with deaths and injuries reported in Nyanza and Western. Police brutality is at an all-time high and it is done with greatest levels of impunity.

The latest police killings are a repeat of a post-election crackdown after the Aug. 8 election, in which 33 people were killed by police in Nairobi and up to 67 people were killed nationwide, according to a joint report by Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International. The report gave frightening revelation that in most cases, the police took away bodies of their victims to unknown places thereby hiding evidence of police killings. In Kisumu police are accused of killing them dumping bodies in the lake.

In the latest investigative reporting done by The VICE an American publication, the killings of these supporters don’t just happen but is a coordinated piece of evil work. VICE News spoke to a 12-year veteran of Kenya’s police force, a member of a plain-clothes intelligence unit(NIS), who works in one of the slums that saw the most bloodshed in August. Counter to the police and government narrative, this officer said these police killings are calculated. Detailing the coordination between his “Spiv” unit and police killing squads, the officer said police forces seek to instill fear in restive communities by eliminating protest organizers and known opposition supporters.

“We gather intelligence and we know where he stays or where he usually spends [time] in a bar or in a hotel. So you can lay an ambush or you can go and get into the house and he’ll be killed,” the officer said.

He added that intelligence officers often rely on neighborhood informants.

The NIS officer talking to VICE news revealed that after an incident, police must file a basic report, detailing the crime and evidence. “Most of the scenes are stage managed,” the officer said. “Maybe he was found with a firearm or a homemade gun… maybe get some bullets. Then the scene of crime officers come and photo the body.”

I talked to a Red Cross source who revealed to me how scared victims of police brutality are to seek justice as this equals to committing suicide. A particular case is rape victims from the fatal police raid After the August poll. Kenya Insights learned of numerous rape victims who are stuck deep in the slums too scared to seek medical services elsewhere not report the tape case to any police station. So the Red Cross team have to follow up on them for treatment and trauma management. It’s not limited to the ladies, anyone assaulted by Police would rather die in the house than reporting and seeking justice as that equals attracting more trouble most likely, death.

If any member of the family takes the risk to seek justice, they risk being profiled, trumped charges and eventually killed to avoid the officer getting prosecuted. This is the exact case that led to the killing of lawyer Willie and his police brutality victim he was presenting. The police officer who was under investigations conspired to kill his accuser and the lawyer, both killers are behind bars now.

In the cases of extrajudicial killings in the slums, going to report or complaining or questioning circumstances surrounding a friend or family member’s death will earn you entrance into the police hit list. The intelligence officer described that there are practices designed to prevent victim’s families from seeking answers to questions about their lost loved ones.

“If someone comes to our office to seek justice he’ll be marked as a criminal and he’ll be eliminated,” he confirmed.

A joint report by Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch released today has implicated the police in 33 deaths post the election that has resulted in months of chaos and uncertainties.

The 37-page report, “‘Kill Those Criminals’: Security Forces’ Violations in Kenya’s August 2017 Elections,” documents excessive use of force by police, and in some cases other security agents, against protesters and residents in some of Nairobi’s opposition strongholds after the elections.

Researchers found that although police behaved appropriately in some instances, in many others they shot or beat protesters to death. Other victims died of asphyxiation from inhaling teargas and pepper spray, from being hit by teargas canisters fired at close range, or from being trampled to death by fleeing crowds.

Police were directly implicated in the deaths of at least 33 people, researchers found. Another 17 were alleged killed, most of them in Kawangware, but researchers could not confirm the cases.

Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch researchers interviewed 151 victims, witnesses, human rights activists, aid workers, and police in Nairobi’s low-income areas known to be strongholds of opposition supporters. Ahead of the vote, police had designated many of these areas as “hot spots” for potential violence and had deployed forces heavily, increasing tensions.

Prior Human Rights Watch research documented 12 killings by police during protests in western Kenya. The Kenya National Commission on Human Rights documented 37 deaths, five of which are in addition to the 33 cases documented here. Taken together with the 17 others allegedly killed by police, the nationwide death toll could be as high as 67. The high death toll is attributed to the fact that police loaded bodies to their trucks and took them to unknown destinations perhaps a ploy to hide the exact casualty figures, there are families who up to now don’t know where their relatives disappeared to, no trace.

Researchers found that armed police – most of them from the General Service Unit (GSU) and Administration Police (AP) – carried out law enforcement operations in Mathare, Kibera, Babadogo, Dandora, Korogocho, Kariobangi, and Kawangware neighborhoods in Nairobi between August 9 and 13. They shot directly at some protesters and also opened fire, apparently randomly, on crowds. Victims and witnesses told researchers that as protesters ran away, police pursued them, kicking down doors and chasing people down alleyways, shooting and beating many to death.

What is more disturbing is the levels of impunity these targeted killings and brutality was conducted. Remarks made by police during many beatings suggested victims were being punished for the way that they had voted, or because of their ethnicity. One man in Mathare told researchers that GSU police beat him saying: “You people will know the government is not yours… You can call your Baba (Raila) to come and help you.”

Bernard Okoth Odoyo, 25, a carpenter, and Victor Okoth Obondo aka Agwambo, 24, close friends who lived near each other, were both shot in the back in Mathare on 13 August while trying to flee from the police, and died instantly.

Raphael Ayieko, 17, his close friend and neighbor, Privel Ochieng Ameso, 18, and Shady Omondi Juma, 18, were shot dead by police in Babadogo on 11 August. Eyewitnesses said they saw a policeman push Raphael onto a wall and shoot him. Raphael, a student at Usenge Boys High School in Siaya county who was visiting his parents in Nairobi for holidays went to carry some groceries to Privel’s house. Privel’s mother said the two boys then went out to observe youth looting nearby kiosks when they were shot by police. Shady was shot in the chest and Privel in the back as he tried to run away.

In Kawangware where violence erupted simultaneously, in the “stage two” area, GSU police clashed with protesters and fired teargas, which contributed to several deaths. A witness said that a 45-year-old businessman, Sammy Amira Loka, who sold tea, was hit by a tear gas canister in the chest as he tried to escape the fighting. Bystanders said he was not beaten but he began coughing blood and
vomiting and was taken to Kenyatta Hospital where relatives said he died on August 16.

Later that evening, at the “56 stage74” area, police fired teargas canisters into crowds as they advanced towards demonstrators. Lilian Khavere, a 40-year-old house-keeper who was eight months pregnant, fainted and was trampled to death by crowds fleeing the teargas as she was coming home from work in Parklands, according to a witness.

At “56 stage” area, Jeremiah Maranga, a 50-year-old watchman, was beaten to death by police. According to witnesses, police caught and beat him so badly that his body was soaked in blood.84 He died before he was seen by doctors, who told relatives he had suffered significant internal bleeding and organ damage.

Witnesses also described police grabbing youths and dunking them in the open sewer that runs alongside the main road through Kawangware slum and is full of sticky black, toxic, effluent.

Relatives said that during protests on August 10, Geoffrey Onacha, a 34-year-old resident in Kibera, was shot dead. We could not establish who fired the gun. His family went to view the body the next day in City Mortuary. His daughter, Sharon Imenza, age 10, was so traumatized by seeing the body in the hospital that she collapsed immediately and died, according to a relative. Relatives buried both soon after in western Kenya without reporting to police or IPOA.

In Mathare, men believed by witnesses to be plain clothed officers fired at bystanders, including children. At around 9 a.m. on August 12, three men in plain clothes and who residents said they believed to be officers from the Directorate of Criminal Investigations, wounded a 12-year-old primary school boy in Mathare 4A who was out playing with classmates.

The boy was later admitted at Kenyatta National Hospital with gunshot injuries in the left leg. “They were shooting at anyone, in most cases those in groups of more than three. The man who shot at the boy had an AK47 and he is a CID officer well known in this area,” said a 22 – year old man and resident of Mathare 4A.

At the backdrop of this report, almost a bigger number have been killed by police who’ve unsurprisingly dismissed it as false in the wake of NASA anti-IEBC demos that has been going on for four weeks now. Police have been extremely brutal and reckless with many killed in Nyanza with live bullets. In what is now being described as the ethnic targeting of the Luo community where Raila is coming from, Kenya is slowly relegating into a failed state like its neighbors deep in wars and dictatorial rule.

Police brutality is not new in Kenya but this time around it has escalated. Less is expected from the policing oversight body and if international partners are not engaged, more Kenyans are set to be slaughtered and as it has been tradition, they’ll get away with the crimes against humanity.

Full report below

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Residents of Turkana are waking up to the horrific news of a revenge attack only scalable to a terror attack on students at Lokichoggio that has left six students and the school’s watchman dead.

Lokichoggio mixed secondary school was vitally attacked by A group of young Toposas who entered to school with a revenge mission, Kenya Insights has gathered. Six students are confirmed dead, one watchman confirmed dead. Four students are seriously injured and referred to Lopiding sub-county hospital for medical stabilization. Kenya Red Cross from Kalobeyei settlement has come in supporting the referral cases to Kakuma mission hospital.

An onset of revenge mission was necessitated when one Toposa and Turkana boys who had a dispute between the two. School administration suspended them on normal discipline procedure. Later they were recalled to go back to school, a Turkana boy came back while the Toposa boy decided to regroup and organized for such a horrifying and barbaric attack on innocent students bloodshed. The principal of the school was also highly targeted, luckily for him he wasn’t caught up. From my perspective I condemn strongly for what happened to Lokichoggio mixed secondary school.

Details gathered by Kenya Insights indicates that the feud between the boys was that apparently the Turkana fellow was given money by the Toposa guy to buy him stuff and he used it instead. The Toposa fellow is a student and army guy back home. When he confronted the Turkana guy he had given the money, we’re yet to establish exact amount, he was beaten up by a group of friends the Turkana had constituted, the head master sent them both home but when they were to return, the Toposa fellow never showed up, until yesterday with his boys, with guns and torches they were looking for his assailant it was a cynical mission that took over two hours, the guys killed and shot were the pals of the guy who beat him up, a student actually called the area OCS who said he is not risking coming out at night. The School is a walking distance to the main Lokichoggio police station and shares a fence with AIC mixed, it’s also a stone throw away from the airport and the military base is on the other side of the river. The South Sudanese militia with the Dinka student had all the time in their hands to slaughter the Turkana boys and confidently walked away to safety.

Of the great concern is the slow response actually close to deliberate inaction from the security forces that would’ve saved the lives of the Students who were left to die. According to sources on the ground speaking to Kenya Insights, the Police line is only about 800m on the Westest side, the GSU about 1km same direction, and KDF 1.5km east, of the school yet they couldn’t respond to the incident that happened at midnight they only showed up at 5 am! More intriguing is the medical personnel located far away arrived at the school ahead of the officers who took their time perhaps applying makeup before responding to the emergency. This is a replica of Garissa University attack where security officers took their time as terrorists had enough time to slaughter as many students.

We’ve seen how promptly and heavily in the recent time’s police machinery is deployed to opposition strongholds to deal with peaceful protesters and merciless shooting of unarmed civilians in the name of maintaining peace but in real sense executing a well planned ethnic cleansing. And just when you need them most all the police machinery and the military chopper that make rounds around the city after every 15minutes during opposition demos, are nowhere to be seen as you’d expect them to be on their way to Lokichoggio.

Evacuation of injured students has been sabotaged with the bad roads and had to take the intervention of Red Cross who’ve now sent choppers to evacuate the seriously injured students in critical conditions. The slow response and no action by the government are wanting. Here we have students laying dead but would’ve been rescued were it that the security forces responded promptly. Given public hospitals shut down across the country due to the prolonged nurses strike, the treatment of the injured students has further been affected, the conditions of hospitals evidently pathetic with injured forced to lay on the bare floor.

Toposa has made it a habit of infiltrating into Turkana West leaving a trail of deaths and then disappear back into their country. This points at the porous borders that ideally should be secured by our security forces who seen to be extra effective dealing with unarmed civilians and excellently inept with the real criminals as these ones.

Before i take a step further, let’s get back to drawing board where rain began to beat Uhuru’s freedom and connect the dots to his predictable fate.

Statement by Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, Fatou Bensouda on the withdrawal of charges against Mr. Uhuru Muigai Kenyatta

“On the 3rd of December 2014, the Judges of Trial Chamber V (B) of the International Criminal Court (ICC) declined to further adjourn the trial of Mr. Uhuru Muigai Kenyatta. Accordingly, given the state of the evidence in this case, I have no alternative but to withdraw the charges against Mr. Kenyatta. Earlier today, I filed a notice to withdraw charges against Mr. Kenyatta. I am doing so without prejudice to the possibility of bringing a new case should additional evidence become available.

This is a painful moment for the men, women and children who have suffered tremendously from the horrors of the post-election violence, and who have waited, patiently, for almost seven years to see justice done.

I have decided to withdraw the charges against Mr. Kenyatta after carefully considering all the evidence available to me at this time. I have based this decision on the specific facts of this case, not on any other consideration. As Prosecutor, my actions and decisions have always been guided by the law and the evidence.

Not withstanding my personal commitment to pursue justice and accountability for Kenyans who were subjected to the terrible violence that swept through Nakuru and Naivasha after the 2007 elections, I can only proceed to trial when there is a reasonable prospect of conviction at trial based on the evidence at my disposal. If there is no such prospect then it is my professional responsibility as Prosecutor to withdraw the charges against the accused.

You will recall that on 5 September 2014, I requested the Trial Chamber to adjourn the trial of Mr. Kenyatta until the Government of Kenya executes in full the Prosecution’s April 2014 Revised Request for records. I informed the Chamber at that time that my evidence remained the same as when I sought an adjournment of the trial date in December 2013, and as such, that I did not consider the available evidence to be sufficient to prove Mr. Kenyatta’s alleged criminal responsibility beyond reasonable doubt as is required at trial.

Despite my persistent efforts and those of my committed Team to advance the course of justice in Kenya, in this instance, those who have sought to obstruct the path of justice have, for now, deprived the people of Kenya of the accountability they deserve.

I have explained to the people of Kenya the severe challenges my Office has faced in our investigation of Mr. Kenyatta. These include the fact that:

· Several people who may have provided important evidence regarding Mr. Kenyatta’s actions, have died, while others were too terrified to testify for the Prosecution;

· Key witnesses who provided evidence in this case later withdrew or changed their accounts, in particular, witnesses who subsequently alleged that they had lied to my Office about having been personally present at crucial meetings; and

· The Kenyan Government’s non-compliance compromised the Prosecution’s ability to thoroughly investigate the charges, as recently confirmed by the Trial Chamber.

Mr. Kenyatta has not been acquitted, and the case can be re-opened, or brought in a different form, if new evidence establishing the crimes and his responsibility for them is discovered. My Office will continue to receive and consider information which may shed light on those who are responsible for the 2007-2008 post-election violence, and will assess what further steps it can realistically and meaningfully take at this point in time in relation to the crimes committed in Nakuru and Naivasha, considering the current situation in Kenya.

However, I wish to say a few words about the failure of the Government of Kenya to cooperate fully and effectively with my investigations in this case. From the time that the Prosecution submitted its revised 8 April 2014 Request to the Government of Kenya, the material the Government sent us simply did not respond to a significant portion of our Revised Request for Records. In short, most of the material sought in my Revised Request was not provided. This is despite the fact that ICC Judges clearly confirmed that my Revised Request was valid, and dismissed all of the Government’s objections to it.

In this situation, the most relevant documentary evidence regarding the post-election violence could only be found in Kenya. Yet, despite assurances of its willingness to cooperate with the Court, the Government of Kenya failed to follow through on those assurances.

Ultimately, the hurdles we have encountered in attempting to secure the cooperation required for this investigation have in large part, collectively and cumulatively, delayed and frustrated the course of justice for the victims in this case.

To conclude, today is a dark day for international criminal justice. Be that as it may, it is my firm belief that today’s decision is not the last word on justice and accountability for the crimes that were inflicted on the people of Kenya in 2007 and 2008; crimes that are still crying out for justice”

Former International Criminal Court legend and First Prosecutor who was Argentina Citizen Moreno Ocampo has been money siphoner after retirement from his Prosecution job at the World Court in 2011.He served his 9-year limit term since the establishment of the International Criminal Court in June 2002.He has been obliged as ‘man of great integrity and high moral character’

From European Investigation Collaborations(EIC) who obtained the 40,000 leaked documents of Diplomatic Cables and Correspondents from French media site Media part,he(Ocampo) has been operating ‘illegally’ categorised businesses in secrecy, multiple bank account transactions from different sources and entities into his and her wife’s accounts with unclear mechanism. In EIC leaks, while still in office Ocampo was dwelling in Offshore bank accounts and Companies in tax havens which unmasked, questioned his authenticity and integrity as profiled on public domain. These documents also unearths, after retiring from ICC job he has been working against the Court by directly and indirectly defending potential targets.

These documents links conversation between former United Nations Secretary General Kofi Anan who was also the mediator in Kenya after the 2007/2008 Post Election violence which Internally displaced over 300K and led to death of over 2,000 people And the then Prosecutor Luis Moreno Ocampo to square President Kenyatta’s case and give him an ‘honourable exit’. This ‘Honourable exit’ sounds charitable affair in simple terms but from Ocampo the ‘tycoon’ revelationist, it seems to have come about after ransom bribery. To convince Kofi Anan, he had suggested that to make the long story short, Uhuru Kenyatta should compensate the 2007/2008 victims with funds, settlement schemes. After internalizing these sentiments, it was a proof if this case was to continue, Uhuru Kenyatta would have been found guilty as charged. Why would he compensate these victims at his own expense when he had not been found guilty?

Talking of possibility of bribery,in EIC’s shared documents of Ocampo’s leaked emails, the former prosecutor had signed a 3year contract with Libyan billionaire Hassan Tatanaki who owns TV media stations, Libyan Oil magnate to help him promote ‘Peace First’ initiative for a salary of $1million annually and $5,000 daily wage. Even after death of Muamar Gaddafi, Civil war in Libya worsened and this initiative was aimed to ‘bring peace’ in Libya. Hassan Tatanaki, had links with Libya National Army General Khalifa Haftar who was under Fatou Bensouda’s watch for execution and raping acts. General Khalifa being under Bensouda’s radar alert was leaked to Ocampo through ICC International Corporation Adviser. Tatanaki had been supporting Khalifa’s team to commit these crimes as he was giving this troop live coverage in his TV station when conducting these genocides to threaten those who had failed to join Khalifa’s militia. After this breeding turmoil, Ocampo had to isolate his client Tatanaki from ICC target General Khalifa Haftar. When things got worse and Bensouda was set to come for Tatanaki, Ocampo fabricated and twisted everything possible to protect him despite knowing he is a threat to Libya peace and a target of ICC to keep his well paying job.

This is a Conspiracy act which the actors are legible to face hostile prosecutions if proven guilty. We remember after Bensouda’s withdrawal of President Uhuru Kenyatta’s case, with support from our intermediate neighbour  Uganda President Yoweri Museveni held a fastidious campaign for withdrawal of Kenya and Uganda from ICC 140 membership which up-to-date has been unsuccessful. You can now connect the dots. The possibility of revival of the dubious and unjust freedom was itching the criminals. So far ICC alias the Hague has achieved below average in all cases it has handled, it has lost trust, it has now become a toothless dog, harmless when like of Ocampo continue back stabbing it.

Sooner than later, Fatou Bensouda is set to revisit President Kenyatta’s case after this backdoor transaction, conspiracy acts.

EIC is set to share second phase of these leaked emails and documents in while. Stay input.

A Bachelor of Arts Economics and Sociology graduate from the Catholic University of Eastern Africa with a Masters in Finance from the United States International University, Ms. Namuye had everything going for her when she rose to the helm of the fund on an acting capacity after serving as the body’s general manager.

If you review the history of the Youth Enterprise Development Fund (YEDF) since its creation in 2006, one thing sticks out like a sore thumb; its leadership is jinxed. None of the fund’s successive chief executive officers (CEOs) have served their full terms and left without their reputation being tarnished by some scandals at some time during their tenure.

Ms. Namuye was first appointed as acting CEO of the fund in February 2013 upon the suspension of the then boss, Juma Mwatata Mwangala, who had been sent packing over allegations of purchasing 1,050 hatching machines at a cost of Sh208 million without the YEDF board’s approval. Mr Mwangala’s predecessor and first-ever CEO of the fund, Umuro Wario was suspended in 2009 and later bundled out of office over claims of irregularities in financial, recruitment and procurement procedures in the institution. The Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission later absolved Mr. Wario of the claims.

When Ms. Namuye appeared before the PIC on March 17 she was keen to save her job and avoid becoming part of the statistics of jinxed CEOs of the YEDF that was formed with the sole purpose of reducing unemployment among the youth who account for over 61 percent of the unemployed in the country.

An emotional Namuye claimed that then YEDF board chairman Bruce Odhiambo forced her to pay Quorandum Ltd Sh180 million for a contract to develop a suspect Information, Communication, and Technology (ICT) strategy. “This project was a board undertaking. I found it rather curious for the board to make me the sole signatory,” she told the committee as she sought to clear herself of blemish. Mr Odhiambo was dismissed as YEDF chairman by President Uhuru Kenyatta in the wake of the embarrassing scandal.

Since February 2013, Namuye was in an acting capacity until she was controversially and irregularly confirmed by the Youth Fund board chair Bruce Odhiambo around January 2015. Such an appointment can only be done by the Cabinet Secretary upon the board’s recommendation of three names of qualified candidates. Despite her name not being amongst those recommended by the board, Waiguru confirmed her as the CEO in a puzzling step. Knowingly or unknowingly, Namuye would be used to siphon millions from the Youths Funds.

But months into her new position, she would lose the position in a letter by the same Odhiambo who accused her of among other things, nonperformance. Behind the scenes, the EACC had written an adverse report against Namuye in regards to interviews that had been conducted by the board in search of a substantive CEO.

EACC advised that she be left out of any appointment. When the list of names was submitted to the then Cabinet Secretary in charges of youth affairs Anne Waiguru, no appointment was done, instead, Namuye continued to serve.

Ms. Namuye and Mr. Odhiambo were, in August 2016, alongside the directors of Quorandum Ltd, Mukuria Ngamau, and Doreen Waithera, charged with the offenses. The Youth Fund officials were each released on a Sh5 million bond with an alternative cash bail of Sh2 million.

Ms. Namuye and Mr. Odhiambo are alleged to have received Sh 4.5 million and Sh 1.8 million in kickbacks from Quorandum that prosecutors said they had “reasons to believe was corruptly acquired from the Youth Enterprise Development Fund.”

The prosecution said between November 17, 2014, and May 4, 2015, in Nairobi, the suspects conspired to defraud the public through “unlawful payment of Sh180,364,789 from the Youth Enterprise Development Fund to Quorandum Limited for services not rendered.”

Ms. Namuye denied a charge of abuse of office which stated that while acting as the chief executive, she executed an underhand contract between the Youth Enterprise Development Fund and Quorandum amounting to Sh114,909,000 for the alleged provision of consultancy services dubbed “The Design of Specifications for an Enterprise Resource Planning.”

Namuye, had earlier on in Parliament, implicated her seniors for the loss of Sh180 million. As the acting CEO, Namuye authorized the payments for a fictitious tender.

It emerged that most of the Sh180 million was used to purchase luxury homes, pay debts and line the pockets of powerful individuals, law firms, and companies, according to revelations by the PIC that were tabled in the House. Mr. Ngamau, for example, used Quorandum’s Chase Bank account to receive money from the Fund and make several transactions with third parties, including the purchase of a duplex apartment in Nairobi’s Lavington estate.

The property was bought from Duchess Park Limited at a cost of Sh48.5 million. PIC revealed that Mr. Ngamau transferred Sh59,082,835 –part of the phony YEDF transactions–to Quorandum’s account at Chase Bank from where the funds were moved to Quorandum’s account at Standard Chartered Bank, Yaya Centre branch.

The funds were then used “to make further transactions and payments on various dates to third parties, including a payment of Sh3.3 million to Bruce Dominic Odhiambo’s account at Co-operative Bank, purportedly for payments of supplies and consultancy services,” the report says.
PIC says Quorandum separately received Sh115 million and Sh65 million from the Fund as payments for purported consultancy services to develop an ICT Strategic Plan and Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) System.

As the acting CEO, Namuye authorized the payments for a fictitious tender but now claims she acted under duress from the board and top officials at the Ministry of Devolution and Planning. Ms Anne Waiguru, who served as Devolution Cabinet Secretary at the time, and former Principal Secretary Peter Mangiti were amongst those she named as having exerted so much pressure on her.

“The CEO has revealed that she was under pressure from the board and external forces (ministry) to proceed with the fake project that has cost taxpayers millions meant to empower the youth,” said a member of the committee in confidence as Namuye had requested to testify behind closed doors.

It wasn’t just external forces that were in her neck, internally, the chairman was playing monkey business as well, Namuye disowned minutes she presented saying they had been forwarded to her by the board chairman Bruce Odhiambo.

She sought the committee’s assistance to get the original minutes’ book saying that she doubted the authenticity of the minutes submitted to her by Odhiambo.

“These minutes are not initialized. It is standard practice that all minutes are initialized so that as the accounting officer, I own them,” she said.

Committee chairman Adan Keynan (Eldas) acknowledged that the information provided by Namuye in camera was useful and confirmed payment of Sh180 million to Quorandum Limited. He said the rot could be much deeper.

“We have called the former CS, PS, entire board of the agency and Head of Public Service Joseph Kinyua, officials of so many companies, Live Gigi, Gigi Tech, Gigi Survey, Duchess Buck Development Company and Ngigi and Mbugua Company Advocates, mentioned in the course of our probe to shed more light on this matter.”

In June this year, Former YEDF chairman Bruce Odhiambo and Namuye, who are on trial for the Sh180 million scam, lodged fresh protests over documents that were allegedly not been supplied to the court to support their case.

Their lawyers alleged that certain documents that may boost their defense, had not been supplied to them. But the prosecution led by senior state counsel Nicholas Mutuku told magistrate Lawrence Mugambi that an affidavit attesting to the misplaced documents has been filed in court.

Kate, as she’s referred to as by her peers no, have had one of the biggest jobs in Kenya but she probably never lived a happy but rather worried. According to Gor Semelango a friend who was also a colleague while he served as Chair before being dismissed by CS Waiguru his a text for playing hardball in a looting conspiracy, Namuye lived lives fear. She was used in looting millions and players dumped her to cover tracks.

Ms. Namuye’s lifeless body had blood oozing out of her mouth a now common scenario in unexplained deaths mostly of prominent persons. The cardiac arrest which is the custom pathology result by Government pathologist is most likely to be confirmed with circumstances leading to the attack remaining unclear.

On Friday 29th, Catherine was officially dismissed from her Youth Funds job and received the letter on Tuesday before the mysterious death on Wednesday. She now adds to the statistics of unexplained deaths in the jinxed docket. In October 2015, a driver attached to one of the Funds directors was found dead at a swimming pool in Mombasa where they had home for a party.

Simon Mwangi is said to have overheard crucial information in a conversation with two senior directors at the Youth Funds. For fear of him leaking the information on the corrupt deals, he was taken out. His murder instilled fresh pack of fear in her, she broke down on the mention of this during her appearance before the parliamentary committee. The reality might have struck her as a potential target of the merciless cartel who killed the driver. This is something she lived on with, it’s unclear if she received death threats but if she was standing in someone’s way who is likely given her position in the heist, she probably received many.

The big question now is who killed Namuye and for what purpose. The case of the fraud is still ongoing and Namuye who was not only an accomplice but a key witness is out of the way which then could mean one fate for the case that touches a large network of the cartel. She lived in fear and regrets as revealed by Gor for having given herself into the demands of the network. The made her the sole signatory leaving her exposed to the noose.

By Obi Anyadike

Undermanned, underfunded, underwhelming: African police forces struggle to contain regular crime, and they are even further out of their depth when it comes to tackling violent extremism.

The best way to identify threats to public safety is a policing model that promotes trust and collaboration with the community, say the policy manuals on preventing violent extremism, better known as PVE. A positive relationship is believed to help build resilience to radicalization.

But the reality in much of the world is that the police are viewed as corrupt, violent, and people best avoided.

“In African culture the police are there to intimidate, to coerce,” acknowledged Kenyan senior sergeant Francis Mwangi.

He is trying his best to change that perception. Sharp and articulate, Mwangi is the face of a new policing initiative in the Nairobi slum of Kamakunji, which aims to build a partnership with the community to help blunt radicalization of the youth.

Traditional policing – far too often based on brutality and arbitrary arrest rather than proper detective work – can create more fear of the security services than the insurgents and is clearly counter-productive.

A new UNDP study based on interviews with more than 500 jihadists – drawn mainly from Kenya, Nigeria, and Somalia­ – found that in over 70 percent of cases “government action”, including the killing or arrest of a family member or friend, was the tipping point that prompted them to join.

Why is the culture of human rights abuse and resistance to reform so deeply ingrained?

Citizen or subject

Part of the problem is history. African police forces were set up by the colonial powers to maintain control over the local population. Independence didn’t really change that function. Their role largely remains regime protection and representation rather than serving the public.

As a result, most police forces are seriously undermanned. The UN recommends a ratio of 300 officers per 100,000 citizens. It’s a rough guide – force levels are influenced by a range of factors. But Kenya manages a ratio of only 203, Nigeria 187, and Mali – another country facing an Islamist insurgency – just 38.

Police forces are also underequipped. From vehicles and the fuel to run them, to paper, pens, and printing ink. The barest of necessities are in short supply, before you get to functioning forensic labs and national fingerprint databases.

Unsurprisingly, conviction rates are low. In South Africa, one of the more advanced police forces on the continent, only an estimated 10 percent of murder cases end in conviction. In crimes of sexual violence, it falls to between four and eight percent.

The temptation, then, is to turn to forced confessions. In Nigeria, torture has become such an integral part of policing that many stations have an informal torture officer, according to a 2014 Amnesty International report.

The prevalence of shoot-to-kill policies are also a reflection of the failure of the criminal justice system, with sections of the community seeing themselves as targets of persecution.

Police hit squads take that logic one step further. In the Kenyan port city of Mombasa, they are known to operate against so-called radical elements, whose deaths only serve to stoke the anger of Muslim youth, who view themselves as already marginalised.

Nigeria provides a stark example of the impact of the failure of due process. In 2009 the police killed Boko Haram founder Mohamed Yusuf while he was in custody. It did not stop his movement, and his successor, Abubakar Shakau, has proved a far more brutal and implacable enemy.

The impunity of the police commanders involved in the murder undermines the moral authority of the Nigerian state.

Governance failure is key in the tolerance of abuse. A corrupt political system breeds corrupt cops. If states are unwilling to provide opportunities, services, and rights to entire sections of its citizens, “there is then little reason to expect national police actors to do so”, argues a report by the Global Centre on Cooperative Security.

Sympathy for the police

The subservience of the police to the ruling elite doesn’t win them any political favours. Conditions of service are generally appalling and pay poor. Families of officers killed in action can struggle to receive their benefits – with kickbacks expected.

A former Nigerian Inspector General of Police acknowledged that some barracks were “to say the least, nauseating”. In the absence of accommodation, one Nigerian officer told IRIN how he spent the first few months of his posting to the northeastern city of Maiduguri sleeping on two plastic hard-backed chairs.

The police top-brass regularly make whistle-stop visits to the city as part of political entourages, but hardly ever drop in on the officers who are on the frontline of the insurgency, and very much targets for Boko Haram.

Predatory police take out their frustrations on the public – typically the most vulnerable and powerless members of society. According to an Afrobarometer survey across 34 countries, the police are universally regarded as the most corrupt of institutions – well ahead of even government officials.

“In most cases the police in Africa are demoralised because the remuneration they are getting is just peanuts,” said sergeant Mwangi in half-hearted mitigation. “They have a family to feed so can be prone to being compromised.”

In the Afrobarometer survey, more than half of respondents who had been victims of a crime did not report it to the police. Regionally, levels of distrust were highest in East Africa – just 43 percent said they would seek the assistance of police first if they became victims.

That’s because the police don’t have a monopoly on criminal justice. People often have multiple choices, with varying degrees of legitimacy and links to the state – from family and friends out to exact revenge, to local militia, customary courts, and formal commercial security guards.

Western models of PVE stress community policing – the ideal of the “bobby on the beat”. But in an African context, community policing means something quite different.

These informal security systems – some of which are just plain vigilantes – have less to do with notions of state legitimacy, “and more to do with what’s available, trusted, and affordable,” the Global Centre on Cooperative Security report points out.

Resistant to reform

Security sector reform is a growth industry in aid world, despite little concrete evidence of success. The reports compiled by external police experts, paid for with donor money, gather dust on the shelves of police commands, the officer in Maiduguri told IRIN.

According to researcher Alice Hills, police reform cannot be divorced from “fundamental socio-political change”. Without buy-in from the powers that be, the effects are only transitory.

The lessons being learnt by sergeant Mwangi in Kamakunji, for instance, are yet to feature in the curriculum of the Kenyan police college.

Reform is admittedly difficult to tackle in the middle of an insurgency. The priority of governments and their international partners is for harder-hitting security services, not the soft power of PVE.

What that can mean in practice is squads of men who are simply more proficient at harming their fellow citizens and extracting rents.

What is needed are “programmes that recognise that the core problems of governance lies in incentives and desire, not capacity,” write researchers, Rachel Kleinfeld and Harry Bader.

The article was originally published on IRIN news.

The Writer is Editor-at-Large and Africa Editor for IRIN News and is Part of a special project exploring violent extremism in Nigeria and the Sahel.

On brutality against civilians. Statements from Affected Students. Following the incident, at the University of Nairobi on Thursday 29th, 2017 here are first-hand statements from the affected students. The names will remain anonymous to protect the students’ identities and privacy.

As the mediator and also a part-time lecturer Amakove Wala, who was present during the event, has verified that these statements are directly from the affected students:

“I’m a 3rd student QS student, I witnessed the whole scenario in ADD. The GSU were beating us ruthlessly irrespective of gender or age. Actually, me and some other two ladies were almost raped in the Room 520. These people were asking us vulgar questions like ‘umevaa suruari ? Na unaweza itoa?’ And touching us too. I personally witnessed a lady who had fainted beaten ruthlessly even in her unconscious state. This must be brought to the light. I’ve also learnt that their interest is not security at all it’s stealing and destroying. -3rd year QS Student- University of Nairobi

“Hi, I’d like to say something about how we were treated yesterday at ADD(University of Nairobi). I am a first-year student (Architecture). First of all, we witnessed a good number of those GSU officers getting intoxicated on weed behind ADD building just before they allowed us to get out. Aside from the beatings as we were leaving I was personally forced to grope my classmate by an officer and when I refused, he beat me up. I had swollen legs all night and have been limping the whole day, but a doctor told me there’s no major damage and it has since gone down.

I hope no other female students were sexually harassed in this manner although I personally did not do this, someone else might have been forced to or even the officers themselves might have done it. They also stole a lot of our money and small electronics other than phones, like power banks and hard disks, and would not allow us to collect our effects like bags in the event they were dropped. Please help us seek justice since I don’t see their reason for storming the building just because it happens to be near the hostels.”
– 1st-year Architecture Student – University of Nairobi

Hello, I am a third-year Real estate student. I was badly injured and kicked to the ground of the ADD(UON) upper parking. I escaped a rape case narrowly were it not for the library security who was coming to the washroom that they stopped pushing me into the toilet. I can easily identify the two officers if they were brought, I even marked their faces. They took my 1000 shillings I had in my bag, lucky enough they didn’t check my jacket pocket where I had my phone. I was rescued by a stranger who carried me to town. As I ran. I still have pains in my abdomen where they beat me with the Rungu (Baton)
– The third-year real estate student

“Hello…I am a student at Nairobi University. I do architecture, yesterday while we were in class tear gas was being thrown at us. Thereafter we were lined up on the ground floor then we were beaten for almost an hour. We managed to run but we were again caught, then they beat us up and left us there I remember very well I was with my friend, whom we were with they took all my money phone everything today I had to go to hospital to get treated as I had fractures on both my leg and arm”
– Architecture Student – University of Nairobi

“Good morning,
I was told you wanted names of people who were beaten and assaulted yesterday. I’m a third-year architecture student. Yesterday when the GSU came into our studios they told us to make a single file and raise our hands up and they were hitting us with their rungus (baton). They were several of them when I was passing and was hit several times. Specifically on my back and my head but I blocked my head with my hands. After leaving the studio on the stairs some more were awaiting us and that’s where I was slapped on the left side of my face and one of the officers was pulling girls aside and squeezing their butts when they passed. I saw two girls in front of me being squeezed and sadly I was the third. As we continued going down others were kicking you.

After we reached the building’s door they started hitting us telling us ‘Rukeni kama chura’ while they continued hitting us. After jumping like that through the parking lot they told us to get up and run, but when we just got up and were running towards the state house road gate others were waiting for us there and told us to sleep on the road with our backs lying on the ground. I was on the first line when they told us to sleep and one of the officers held his rungu(baton) in an upright position, lifting it up and pushing it on our thighs telling us ‘munaona nyinyi pekee yenu munajuwa kusoma,sisi hatujui kusoma ni wajinga,leo tutawaonyesha’.

When he pushed his rungu on my thighs I started crying and shaking and one of the officers looked at me. I thought he was going to beat me and I told him please help me. He told me to get up and told all the other students to leave in a single line. I was left behind with almost 6 officers. He asked me my name and where I live and where my parents live. He told me not to cry. And then he took my number and flashed me.

Those other officers started telling him ‘mbona unambembeleza,mlete hapa tumwonyeshe’ he then guided me outside the gate. There was a GSU lorry parked outside and there were officers inside the lorry. They started telling the officer who was guiding me outside,’umetuletea zawadi ya muislamu,mlete hapa tumwonyeshe wanaume ni nani’ and the officer who helped me told me to run which I did.

My brother and father were waiting for me at YWCA and I went there and headed home with them. I’m a grateful I had no permanent physical harm but what happened yesterday was terrorism. We were innocent students in class learning and we had locked our studio doors and blocked them with plan chests. They told us to open the doors and they wouldn’t beat us if we did, they just wanted to escort us out which was a lie.What has happened has happened but I hope this would never happen again to any student and that our experience could help others in future from experiencing anything like this.”
– 3rd-year Architecture Student – University of Nairobi

“Hi there. I am also a victim of yesterday’s incident. I am a first-year architecture student at ADD and am currently nursing at home after being beaten on the back, lower limbs and upper arm with no reason whatsoever. Am ready to join you in the petition and I hope we get the justice on behalf of all those affected. There’s a video of where we were beaten from.”
– 1st-year Architecture Student – University of Nairobi

“I was brutally beaten in my back and my arm almost broken at ADD,(University of Nairobi), I still have with me my hospital receipts and X-Ray. I am now under medication and recuperating at home. To make it worse, they even demanded money from me which I surrendered kshs 200 to them. I hope justice will have its way.”
– University of Nairobi Student

“Hello, My friend talked to you and told me to tell you what happened. Well apart from the normal beating everyone got. As I was exiting the school I was going to use the Mamlaka road exit, then one GSU told me to use the statehouse road exit. So I listened. This only brought me closer to them. That’s when one of them grabbed me and told me “wewe Ndo ilikuwa unapiga picha” I don’t know why they selected me to cause, I wasn’t taking pictures.

Maybe it’s because of how I look and they saw I was an easy target. Anyway, him saying that I was the one taking photos led to more GSU coming to surround me one saying “ehh wewe ndio ilikuwa unapiga picha” then slapped me while another tackled me to the ground.

I fell down at the beginning of the path that leads to the garden restaurant. My site analysis fell down under the hedge. The 5 of them then started beating me with rungus(batons) and kicks telling me, “Toa camera” I was pleading with them telling them I don’t own one .

They then told me to remove my phone I did that and told them that it had died and they stared hitting it with their rungus . They then picked my bag and emptied all the contents on the ground, including my new laptop which they also hit with their rungu. I pleaded with them saying that I hadn’t taken any pictures.

They then tell me to stop whining like a girl and slapped me. After a few more beatings they told me to go. So I ran and left most of my stuff on the floor. They called me back and told me to take everything. As I was picking my laptop and phone and work, they kept on hitting me with the rungu (baton). All this time I couldn’t see properly Coz my glasses had fallen off and being stepped on by one officer. They then led us out of the compound in a straight line while mocking us.

I don’t know why I remember this all so clearly but I do and haven’t been able to stop thinking about it since yesterday. They picked on me twice and they hit all of us as even as we exited the studio. They were three of them, Rungu, slap, rungu, that was the sequence. To be honest, after that I lost count of how many times I was beaten, and after they finished beating me, one of them told me “Toa kitu kidogo cha mkubwa”, Like they expected me to bribe them after all that.
– 3rd-year Architecture Student – University of Nairobi

“My suitcase broken into and things made away with
My left hand is not functioning now well beaten by a rungu, My right eye slapped. I had to look for some medicine to enable me to see properly.”
– 1st year Student- University of Nairobi

“Hello, I would like to report that some of my classmates were affected yesterday, September 28th, 2017 by the GSU. We were forced to walk in a single file outside ADD building, told to take out their books and read while seated on the ground while the GSU hurled insults at them, kicked several times with the GSU batons and frog matched. Most of these students suffered knee bruises and other unsaid injuries. To top it all they were forced to pay the GSU to set them free. Kindly look into this and the school should consider compensating these victims. We hope drastic measures will be taken and that it’s not all for PR.
– Fourth-year Construction Management student- University of Nairobi.

“ Hi, I just wanted to lay my views and personal experience on what happened yesterday. First, I feel like our security as students is highly compromised at the expense of our studies and SCHOOL FEES. We were not even aware of these protests! last time we could hear of rumors and take caution but yesterday we were in class when we were attacked. Second, I also fell victim to the teargas inhalation and felt a bit faint, had to lie down for a few moments for my heart to resume normal heartbeat rate because of the trauma that I went through, hearing screams as students and staff were mercilessly beaten downstairs, also a student who was asthmatic struggling to breathe. We were hiding in level 6 of the University building and I thank GOD that that door is lockable, otherwise it is the LORD who knows what could have happened if those officers managed to get through. While escaping I was really shocked to just walk a few paces off ADD only to find the GOONS themselves, (The ones the GSU were supposed to be fighting)…having blocked Mamlaka road and lit up the “riot fire with twigs…in front of hall 13 and Box (Hostels)”. The GSU officers were BUSY enjoying terrorizing students in class while the CULPRITS are outside BOX on Mamlaka road. OUTSIDE THE SCHOOL? And also my other plea….those people on SOCIAL MEDIA…trying to say that we deserve this punishment…stop running to conclusions that it is us who caused the mess…kuna methali isemayo “Fahali waili wakipigana…Nyasi ndio huumia…” I also used to advice my friends if they ever hear of a rumor of protests to keep away from school…until I fell victim to this horror (unaware)…today I choose to speak out. – A very concerned University of Nairobi Student

Jane Gumo, Lecturer; All Architecture students who have written accounts here are my students. I had a first-year studio class on Thursday afternoon in ADD. I had not wanted to teach the class but when I called admin at about 230pm I was told it was safe. I got to the studio at about 3 pm. Taught for about an hour and started hearing a commotion outside. I abruptly ended my class and left. When I got to the lobby the UoN security refused to let students out of the building. They might have felt it was safer to keep them in. I hang around the lobby for about 15 mins and made a personal decision to leave when I felt it was safe enough to get to my car in the parking lot. As soon as I got into my car, I just drove out of the compound passing a number of GSU on my way out.
I was SHOCKED to learn that only 20 minutes later all hell broke loose.

Ogake Mochache, Lecturer; Some of my students were harassed, luckily managed to hide and were not hurt. My boss was stranded helplessly in the office too when students and staff were being brutalized outside. Terribly ashamed to be part of a system that doesn’t protect the innocent. Meanwhile let’s just pretend none of this happened. It’s business as usual. To say that I am OUTRAGED is an understatement!!!!

Some of the videos captured.

By Miguna Miguna

FOR THE RECORD: This was my take on Mercy Keino’s cold blooded murder –
Two opinions and one

“Government/Kenya Police” position.

How Mercy Keino Was Murdered in cold blood

By MIGUNA MIGUNA, July 4, 2011

I have a confession to make. When I read about the grisly murder of the University of Nairobi student Mercy Keino, I cringed and cried so loud those near me might have thought I had gone crazy. I was. I am a proud father of four lovely young girls aged between fifteen and seven. I could only think of my girls when the news about Mercy’s death broke. So, readers should forgive me if I take her death personally. I do.

And for that reason, I am extremely upset with the ever fumbling and incompetent Kenya Police. I have read with more anger Police Commissioner Mathew Iteere’s plea that ‘Mwau aides should be charged.’ Gracious Lord; that’s the institution Kenyans expect to conduct investigations and apprehend Mercy’s killers?

By law, only the police have the mandate to conduct criminal investigations and apprehend criminals. But on that newspaper report Iteere is pleading with God-knows-who to arrest people that had staged a shooting and then lied to the police about it. Hallo? Why has it taken more than one week to lock up those scumbags?

Everyone who saw Harun Mwau’s vehicle after the alleged shooting knows that the damn thing was staged. It was staged so poorly that even the two actors couldn’t perform the skit. Everyone could see the driver’s smirk when questioned about how the six bullets could have struck very close to the car handle, with some bullets exiting on the passenger side door without touching either the driver or the bodyguard. They had no answers on how the driver’s window could be completely shattered with glass falling onto the seat where he sat during the ‘shooting’, yet he emerged unscathed.

Moreover, Iteere himself had declared that the way the shooting was supposed have occurred defies all laws of velocity (or was it ‘the law of munition’?)

The police only need ‘probable and reasonable basis to believe that a crime has been committed for them to arrest and charge a suspect. In the Mwau incident, there were a zillion ‘reasonable and probable cause’ to believe that the two actors had manufactured the story and lied to the police. Those are two charges right there. A third charge is the illegal use of firearm. A fourth one is ‘conspiracy to defeat the course of justice.’ Others would naturally follow after their arrests.

This brings me to the unforgivable cold-blooded murder of Mercy Keino. Why do I insist it was a cold-blooded murder? The story, as narrated by the local media, is pretty straight forward.

A beautiful young female university student is invited out by her cousin. They arrive in Westlands late evening and are ‘welcomed’ by two studs who, by all accounts are either pimps or drug enforcers. They meticulously interview the two young women, taking their personal details and identity documents. That’s clue number one.

At that point, a cautious, streets smarts girl would have started being suspicious. But Mercy is a rambunctious, naïve beauty who is eager to have a good time on a Friday evening. So, the two pimps or enforcers flag a taxi (a second clue) and take the girls to a ‘private’ party.

The party is warming up when they arrive. Curiously, the women outnumber men one to three. That’s clue number three. Clue number four is the age-bracket of the ‘girls’; all range between nineteen and twenty five.

But there is ‘business’ to discuss with the middle-aged to elderly ‘business suits’ already seated and others arriving (clue number five). Alcohol is flowing like the great Nile. Clue number six. The only wrinkle is that Mercy is a teetotaler, yet alcohol is integral to the execution of the ‘business’ at hand. Clue seven.

Although the women outnumber men, the place is clearly swarming with heavily built security; armed and unarmed. This is the eighth clue. Discussions veer towards the delicate and murky details of ‘transatlantic shipments of precious cargo.’ Whispers and codes used. Mercy is completely lost and starts getting restless. She wants to leave, NOW! That is the ninth clue.

But there is a problem; the ‘boss’, who has just arrived, cannot allow Mercy to leave. He thinks Mercy is dangerous. She has seen and heard too much. She is a risk the ‘business’ cannot take. He commands her to resume her seat and politely reminds her that she has two choices: ‘you either cooperate or you will become past tense.’ Mercy – naïve and boisterous – dares the ‘boss’ and attempts to leave.

A scuffle ensues and Mercy is forcibly confined. She pretends to relax and engages in small talk. A few minutes later, she suddenly runs towards the exit.
The muscle men quickly grab her and force her back inside. Mercy has become a captive. By this time, she has resolved not to cooperate.

Flashing before her is her fiancé and the wedding they had planned for December this year. ‘I can’t do this!’ she kept screaming. She took furtive glances at her cousin who was herself too scared to come to Mercy’s aid. Mercy is all alone now. The ‘boss’ has had enough. He orders his men to ‘feed her.’ She is forced to drink a cocktail of alcohol and other substances. This is clue number ten.

The effect was instant. The ‘boss’ gives a secret signal to his men. The exit suddenly opens for Mercy and she lunges at it. On reaching outside, the men tell her that they will call a taxi and ‘escort’ her home. She refuses but at this point, she has no options.

A sleek Mercedes ‘taxi’ dutifully arrives within minutes and Mercy is forced inside. What follows after this is well known to the underworld: rape, torture, strangulation and death. A few minutes later, the body is dumped on the busy Waiyaki Way. Clue number eleven.

Shortly thereafter, the ‘taxi’ is slowly driven into a hidden warehouse and its number plate removed. It is thoroughly vacuumed inside out and repainted. The number plate is transferred to another sleek Mercedes. Clue twelve.

A cover-up story is quickly manufactured and disseminated to senior editors in various media houses. Senior police officers are quickly roped in. Mercy is depicted as having been drunk, rowdy and reckless. A motor vehicle accident story has been carefully circulated. The media frenzy sets in. ‘It was an accident!’ they scream. The pathologist can’t tell the cause of death. That’s predictable. The story is latched onto by the inept and corrupt police and press. The police officer that witnessed the autopsy has been transferred. Clue thirteen.

This was supposed to be an open and shut case. Yet the police haven’t arrested anybody for aggravated assault, forcible confinement, unlawful detention, battery and torture. These are crimes disclosed by various newspaper reports. Additionally, the police should charge somebody with murder. But the witnesses are scared shitless. They are only repeating the cover-up stories they were fed by the agents of the ‘boss’.

Why haven’t the police searched and examined all homes, offices, apartments, rooms, hotels, motels, vehicles, warehouses, depots – anything connected with everyone who was at the party? What about the Nyayo Stadium where that Okello creep supposedly delivered a ‘bag’ after midnight on the day Mercy was murdered? Has it been combed? If not, why?

With the criminal negligence of the Samuel Kamau Wanjiru murder investigations, the Police Commissioner is proving to Kenyans that he cannot deliver. Let truth be told: Mercy refused to be a drug mule and for that she had to die. It’s as simple as that.

There you are: I’ve done it for my girls!
——————————————————————————
Police Spokesman Mr. Kiraithe responds to Miguna

Eric Kiraithe, Kenya Police Spokesman’s “Police Investigated Mercy’s Death Well,” July 6, 2011

www.nairobistar.com/opinions/others/30594-police-investigated-mercys-death-well

Police Investigated Mercy’s Death Well .

Wednesday, 06 July 2011 14:41 BY ERIC KIRAITHE .

It is unfortunate that people like Miguna Miguna have exploited the tragic death of Mercy to hurl expletives at the Kenya Police. I will respond to some genuine concerns raised by several serious commentators but I cannot allow to go unchallenged the outpouring of vitriol, self-righteous ignorance and outright insults to the most down to earth Police Commissioner in post independence Kenya in Miguna’s article in the Star of July 2 headed ‘Get off your fat asses, Kenya Police.’

Miguna arrogantly pours scorn on the Commissioner of Police over his statement that Kenya police has recommended prosecution on the bodyguard and driver of Harun Mwau. In a piece of cheap political propaganda, he derisively wonders, “Iteere is pleading with God knows who…” implying that the police are the final authority in matters of prosecution. This is either pure ignorance or a deliberate camouflage.

The constitution (which Miguna often pretends to champion) expressly provides that the role of prosecution and investigation be separated. In the Mwau saga, police duly prepared the case file, made recommendations and forwarded it to the DPP.

Commissioner Matthew Iteere personally examined the crime scene. Miguna could have lifted a telephone and asked for information from the Commissioner’s office.

I have personally perused this case file and unlike Miguna’s “ever fumbling and incompetent Kenya Police”, I can confidently confirm this is a well investigated case by any standards. This position will be vindicated once the file lands in court.

My message to Miguna is singular, “ you must wake up wake to the reality that in Kenya Police, we have completely liberated ourselves from the bondage where political party propagandists would order some person to be arrested and prosecuted. Sir, those are some of the realities of the new constitution, take it or leave it”.

The second item which Mr. Miguna sought to exploit in his boisterous transformation from political party operative into expert investigator is the tragic death of Mercy Chepkoskei.

As a decent Christian, I agree that the family should be left to mourn in peace. I also share with Miguna the anger of all fathers who have had the blessing of bringing up daughters.

I confess that I felt trepidation when I requested the murder file but I never expected the level of professionalism evident therein. Police diligence was not the only impressive thing. I must salute the lady who at 3 a.m. in the morning saw what she believed was the commission of a crime. She pursued the vehicle, recorded its type and registration number, and duly gave it to the police.

Kudos also goes to the man who last saw the victim alive at about 2:30 a.m. and shortly after the fatal injuries. He proceeded to Parklands Police Station and made a comprehensive report. With Kenyans who can offer their evidence on serious crimes committed at the deadliest time of the night and police officers who can assemble the evidence provided, I’m convinced that Kenya is changing.

Back to the facts. On the morning of June 18 (over a week before the matter came to the press), Parklands Police Station received a report from a witness that he had seen a lady waving him down on Waiyaki Way.

About thirty minutes later, he found that lady had been fatally injured and was lying on the road. He gave all his details and all those in his company. Unlike those who would want to paint him as an accomplice to murder, I believe he is a credible witness because criminals never mention more than one witness as it is next to impossible to coach multiple witnesses.

Another lie is that the victim’s body was never tested for alcohol. She was tested and the results can be verified by any interested party. Without going into details that can hurt the bereaved, let me state we have done a professional job.

Although we have not been able to explain how the deceased met her death and identify who is responsible, the evidence so far has been professionally assembled and can always be exploited in future as investigations proceed. It is therefore dishonest for Miguna to suggest that this was an open and shut case.

In the meantime I feel obliged to tell my daughters and sons to please avoid secretive activities if they take you to out of way places during the hours of darkness, and if you cannot take with you at least two of your genuinely trusted friends.

This is to ensure that if you must bolt past midnight, you will not be alone. Have your fun in areas where the public is generally admitted. Learn from the fact that whatever we know about the last minutes of Mercy, at least two drivers on a public road took the trouble to report to the police and have stood to be counted.

Eric Kiraithe is the Kenya Police spokesman.
———————————————————————-

Police Are Now Complicit in Mercy Keino’s Murder

BY MIGUNA MIGUNA, July 12, 2011

Allow me to revisit the tragic, barbaric murder of Mercy Keino. I do so out of moral and professional duty. We owe it to Mercy, to our children and to society in general to do everything within our powers to find and punish the perpetrators of this most heinous and cowardly crime.

When a cold-blooded criminal takes away the life of an innocent person like Mercy, our silence, fear and lackadaisical attitude encourages the wrongdoer to continue committing more crimes. In Kenya, it is becoming a culture. As a trained barrister and solicitor, one who takes a keen interest on both investigatory and prosecutorial techniques, I would be failing in my responsibility if I shied away from asking tough questions where these haven’t been posed or answered. I am not going to be intimidated, threatened, coerced or soothed into silence by the incompetent, corrupt and docile police.

Before relocating to Kenya in 2007, I had acted for numerous families traumatised by the loss of their loved ones at the hands of the police. I once acted for a family who lost a 24-year-old young man, gunned down at a major downtown Toronto hospital on December 31, 1999 as he sought medical attention for his seriously ill infant baby boy. He was black. The shooters were all white. There was a protracted inquest and false death litigation that I was involved in.

I also represented families whose loved ones had perished in tragic road accidents. Numerous times, I have acted for plaintiffs and defendants in malpractice suits ¬ for and against lawyers and physicians. I have had my fair share of reviewing autopsy reports, medical charts and expert reports. I am no stranger to medical, actuarial, engineering, psychiatric and psychological expert reports.

In the past 15 years, I have cross-examined thousands of detectives, police officers, forensic scientists and physicians. I have also read thousands of police reports and notes. Those were a far cry from the patchy verbal narrations by the Kenya Police. So, I know a thing or two about the ‘best practices’ on how to handle crime scenes, how to preserve evidence, and how to detect inconsistencies, contradictions and lies in ‘case files’. When the media first reported on Mercy’s death, my brain went up in flames.

There were so many gaping gaps, questions, contradictions, inconsistencies and plain lies that were flying about. I thought I was watching a horror movie. Yet the police haven’t explained how they resolved them. For without a logical and satisfactory resolution, Mercy’s case must remain open. Criminal cases have no limitation periods!

I am well-trained and experienced in these matters. I have made a living analysing cases and asking relevant questions ¬ in and outside the courtroom. And in all my years of legal practice, I have never come across the kind and level of investigative ineptitude and clumsiness that the Kenya Police exhibit daily, but more particularly on the Mercy Keino, Samuel Wanjiru, Njuguna Gitau, Oscar King’ara and Oulu cases. I am also aware of their criminal incompetence on the political assassination cases of Pio Gama Pinto, TJ Mboya, Dr Robert Ouko, Dr Odhiambo Mbai, Father Kaiser, Bishop Alexander Muge and others.

We are told that Mercy had gone to a private party at the Wasini Luxury Homes accompanied by her female cousin. They arrived at the Oil Libya gas station next to The Mall in Westlands. They were met by two men, presumably working for those responsible for ‘arranging’ the private party. Both men closely examined their identity cards and took personal details from them.

Having successfully passed the ‘vetting procedure’, one of the men took Mercy and her cousin in a ‘taxi’ to the apartment and, upon arrival there, they found ‘the second man’ had arrived ahead of them. Like most young women, Mercy carried a handbag and a mobile phone. Please note that detail.

It is almost a given that both Mercy and her cousin carried some money; at least enough for a ride back to the university after the party. The money would most likely have been kept in the handbag as most young women between the ages of 19 and 25 would most likely have dressed in clothes without pockets. It’s most likely that the handbag also contained other ‘normal’ and ‘precious’ items young women carry in their handbags on a night out. An intelligent guess informs me that Mercy considered her handbag very precious. Like most young women, she would have kept it either on the table or on the floor next to her. There’s nothing unusual about that. I’ve done my due diligence and carefully examined the area around Wasini.

The distance between the Oil Libya to Wasini is about 1.4km, give and take. An average person would walk that distance in less than 40 minutes. A taxi would take two minutes from Oil Libya, barring bad traffic.

A direct route from Wasini to Waiyaki Way on Church Road is about 200 metres. A normal person would walk that distance in less than 20 minutes.

However, depending on the level of intoxication, forceful physical restraint or injury, a person might take more than an hour to reach the highway from Wasini on Church Road. There are no streetlights. It’s pitch dark between midnight and 5am on this route.

Because Mercy and her friend had followed the Sarit Centre route earlier, one would have expected her to do the same going back. Human beings are creatures of habit. Moreover, they had been met at Oil Libya earlier on, suggesting that they might have been unfamiliar with the general area. It’s therefore inconceivable that Mercy – whom the Police Commissioner Mathew Iteere claimed was ‘drunk and reckless’ – would have travelled or ran along Church Road in total darkness to her death on the highway alone.

If Mercy was physically unrestrained and she had both her mobile phone and money, she would have either taken a taxi (as they had done earlier) or called a friend or relative to pick her up. The media initially quoted an un-named source at Wasini had called a ‘taxi’ for her. Who was this person?

Has s/he been interviewed by the police? There isn’t any indication if or when the ‘taxi’ arrived at Wasini. If it did, where did it take Mercy and who paid for the ride? Has the ’taxi’ company or driver given a detailed credible account of what happened between the time they were called and the time they arrived at Wasini? Answers to these questions would help unravel how Mercy’s badly mangled body ended up on the highway that morning.

Another undisclosed source claimed that Mercy left Wasini running with a few ‘bodyguards’ chasing after her towards the highway. Who were these men? Who did they work for? Have the police interviewed them? If so, have they clearly explained how Mercy died? More significantly, is that story consistent with Iteere’s scandalous claim that Mercy was ‘drunk and reckless?’ How does anyone who was not at the party speak about Mercy’s recklessness?

The source even claimed that he ‘witnessed’ Mercy being knocked down by a vehicle on Waiyaki Way after 2am. What was he doing in the darkness at that time? Did he contact the police promptly with that information? Has this witness described the men who were chasing Mercy? Have the police arrested those men? If indeed that story is credible, how could Mercy have been ‘run over’ by several vehicles? Couldn’t the ‘witness’ have alerted the motorists of the ‘accident?’ How come the witness never offered assistance and never came forward until the media broke the story?

The police have claimed that alcohol was found in Mercy’s blood. The question is: do the police know how the traces of alcohol got into her blood? Couldn’t the alcohol have been forcefully given to her or injected into her body? Couldn’t her drink have been spiked? Did the toxicology report reveal the presence of other substances? What were their levels? Were the levels of alcohol or other substances (if any) indicative of normal consumption or something sinister? This could easily be determined from examining the liver.

Apparently, Mercy’s handbag and mobile phone were ‘found’ in Wasini after she had been murdered. The police want us to believe that Mercy ‘left behind’ both her mobile phone and handbag. Why? How? No female university student, in fact, no female generally, would have left behind the phone she needed to call for help or assistance.

Usually, a woman won’t leave her handbag behind even when going to the bathroom; more so after the reported altercation with a ‘flamboyant’ Kenyan politician. The only logical explanation why Mercy’s handbag and mobile telephone weren’t found next to her body on the highway was because she didn’t leave the Wasini voluntarily. She was a captive. Her captors knew that with modern technology, one can be traced through a phone. So, they deliberately took it away. But have the police investigated all these angles? Your guess is as good as mine.

The police have latched on to the incredible story of an ‘Uthiru-bound motorist’ who ‘noticed a woman flagging down vehicles on the highway after 2am’. He allegedly noticed a badly injured woman lying on the same spot where the other woman had been. That’s a bald-faced lie. Why didn’t he stop and offer assistance to her? How would the motorist have seen Mercy’s injuries on the opposite side of the highway in total darkness?

If he had seen a woman waving down vehicles on his way to Uthiru, it means she had not run into the oncoming traffic as another undisclosed Wasini source had alleged; she would have either been injured or dead already. Why would she be waving down a motorist driving towards Uthiru, anyway? The University of Nairobi-bound vehicles would be driving on the opposite side of the road. Or could it be that she was desperate to catch the eye of a ‘good Samaritan’ because of imminent danger lurking in the dark?

In any event, how did the Uthiru-bound man see the opposite side of the highway after 2am in total darkness on his way back? At that spot, it’s impossible even during the day to notice anything much on the opposite side of the highway, never mind on a virtually unlit road at night. The Church Road side of Waiyaki Way is about 15 feet higher than the opposite side at the point where Mercy’s body was found, at least, and has a barrier, where the traffic comes up on the slip road section between the two carriageways to change direction. In any event, have the police conducted tests at the scene to confirm the Uthiru man’s bizarre story? If so, can they publish those results?

But then, there is a lady who said she saw a motorist dumping Mercy’s body on the highway then driving off. She followed him and wrote down the make, model and the registration number of the vehicle. She then drove to the nearest police station and reported the matter within a few minutes of witnessing the ‘crime’. In countries where police know their job, that’s more than enough to crack the case.

With that piece of evidence, why did the police allow Mercy to be buried within days of her death? Why didn’t the police treat the death as homicide immediately? How come the fake investigations were only ‘conducted’ after the media broke the story?

Perplexingly, the police have latched on to the Uthiru-bound man’s bizarre story and not the lady’s. Ironically, the Uthiru-bound man never reported his bizarre story to the police immediately after he ‘saw the badly injured lady’. He conveniently waited until the media broke the story ¬ one week later. Why? Was he planted? Is he a real witness?

Between the two stories, which one sounds more credible and therefore believable? Why shouldn’t the police treat the Uthiru-bound man as a potential suspect?

There is another peculiar detail: When Mercy’s body was found on the road, there was not much blood at the scene. Why? If Mercy was a victim of a ‘hit-and-run’ and her body badly mangled as a result, as the corrupt and incompetent police want us to believe, why wasn’t the scene messy with blood?

The police said Mercy’s skull had no brain; did they find parts of her brain on the road? If not, why? Isn’t it possible that the body was mutilated elsewhere before being dumped on the highway? Isn’t it also possible that the murderers are the same people who repeatedly ran over Mercy’s body after dumping it on the highway? Why didn’t the police visit the scene immediately after the report by the lady? On what basis have they latched on to the hit-and-run concoction?

Why haven’t the police thoroughly investigated everyone at the party, including the ‘boss’, cooks, waiters, watchmen and security people? How about the drug-dealing angle? What happened to the CCTV cameras? Have those been investigated? Why not? We want to know.

The Kenya Police have become unacceptably inept and corrupt. In the Samuel Wanjiru case, the police have refused to investigate a credible story linking the deceased’s wife to a senior police officer in Nyahururu. They have refused to disclose who were in the Toyota Prado that arrived at the Wanjiru compound with Teresia Njeri that fateful night. They haven’t released the autopsy report and explained what caused the fatal blow to the back of Wanjiru’s head if he had jumped from the balcony as the police have alleged.

These are questions I would have asked, had I been involved as a lawyer in this case and other cases. And the police must answer them to our satisfaction instead of expecting us to swallow their garbage. We aren’t total idiots!

Logins is a former Nairobi Gubernatorial Contestant and integrity champion in Kenya. The views expressed here are his own.

Kenya’s presidential election on August 8, 2017 was marred by serious human rights violations, including unlawful killings and beatings by police during protests and house-to-house operations in western Kenya, Human Rights Watch has said. At least 12 people were killed and over 100 badly injured.

Kenyan authorities should urgently investigate the crimes, and ensure that officers found to have used excessive force are held to account.

“The brutal crackdown on protesters and residents in the western counties, part of a pattern of violence and repression in opposition strongholds, undermined the national elections,” said Otsieno Namwaya, Africa researcher at Human Rights Watch. “People have a right to protest peacefully, and Kenyan authorities should urgently put a stop to police abuse and hold those responsible to account.”

Human Rights Watch conducted research in western Kenya during and after the election. Researchers interviewed 43 people, including victims of police beatings and shootings, in Kisumu and Siaya counties; examined bodies in mortuaries in Kisumu and Siaya counties; and visited victims at Jaramogi Oginga Odinga Teaching and Referral Hospital (Russia Hospital) in Kisumu.

On August 11, following the announcement of Uhuru Kenyatta’s victory at the polls, opposition supporters in Nairobi, Coast, and the western counties of Kisumu, Siaya, Migori, and Homabay protested with chants of “Uhuru must go.” Police responded in many areas with excessive force, shooting and beating protesters in Nairobi and western Kenya or carrying out abusive house-to-house operations.

On August 12, the Kenya National Commission on Human Rights reported that the police had killed at least 24 people nationwide, including one in Kisumu and 17 in Nairobi. The number is most likely much higher, as Kenyan media were slow in reporting on the violence and families have been afraid to speak out.

Mild protests and political tension surfaced in parts of western Kenya and Nairobi on August 9, following allegations by the opposition leader, Raila Odinga, that the electoral commission’s system had been hacked and polling results manipulated in favor of Kenyatta. The protests intensified on August 11, when the electoral commission declared Kenyatta the winner. Odinga has challenged the results in court, with the verdict due by September 1.

In western Kenya, police fired teargas canisters and water cannons to disperse protesters, who threw stones and other crude objects at police. Protesters also blocked roads with stones, burned tires, and lit fires on the roads.

On August 11 and 12, police carried out house-to-house operations. Residents said that police asked for any men in the house and beat or shot them. Police also fired teargas canisters and water cannons in residential areas. Human Rights Watch confirmed through multiple sources that police killed at least 10 people, including a 6-month-old baby, in Kisumu county alone. In neighboring Siaya county, police fatally shot a protester near the town of Siaya and beat a 17-year-old boy to death in the outskirts of Ugunja, as they pursued crowds of protesters into the villages. Human Rights Watch found no evidence that protesters were armed or acted in a manner that could justify the use of such force.

In the town of Kisumu, hospital staff and county government officials confirmed that at least 100 people, mostly men, were seriously injured in the beatings and shootings. Many others did not go to a hospital for treatment for fear of being further targeted or arrested. As of August 17, at least 92 people with serious injuries, including 3 women who said police raped them, had not sought any medical help, according to Edris Omondi, the chairperson of the makeshift Kisumu county Disaster Management Center that was registering those affected by the violence and police abuses.

Residents of Obunga, Nyalenda, Nyamasaria, Arina, Kondele, and Manyatta neighborhoods in Kisumu told Human Rights Watch that during house-to-house operations, officers broke down doors; beat residents; stole money, phones and television sets; and sexually harassed women. Many town residents fled to a nearby school for the night, only to return to find their possessions looted, presumably by police. Police denied any role in the looting and claimed that criminals were responsible.

On August 12, the acting cabinet secretary for interior and coordination of the national government, Dr. Fred Matiang’i, denied that police used live bullets or excessive force against protesters and blamed criminals for looting. “Some criminal elements took advantage of the situation to loot property,” he said. “The police responded and normalcy has returned in the affected areas. The right to demonstrate should be carried out in a peaceful manner and without destroying property.

International law and Kenya’s own constitution protect the right to freedom of assembly and expression, and prohibit excessive use of force by law enforcement officials. The United Nations Basic Principles on the Use of Force and Firearms say that law enforcement officials should use force only in proportion to the seriousness of the offense, and the intentional use of lethal force is permitted only when strictly unavoidable to protect life.

The principles also say that governments should ensure that arbitrary or abusive use of force and firearms by law enforcement officials is punished as a criminal offense. Superior officers should be held responsible if they knew, or should have known, that personnel under their command resorted to the unlawful use of force and firearms, but did not take all measures in their power to prevent, suppress, or report such use.

Kenyan police have a long history of using excessive force against protesters, especially in the western counties such as Kisumu, Siaya, Migori, and Homabay, where Odinga has had solid support for over 20 years. In the 2007 post-election violence, during which more than 1,100 people were killed, most of the more than 400 people shot by police were in the Nyanza region, which includes those counties.

In 2013, Human Rights Watch documented at least five cases of apparently unlawful police killings of demonstrators in Kisumu protesting a Supreme Court decision that affirmed Kenyatta’s election as president. And in June 2016, police killed at least five and wounded another 60 demonstrators in Kisumu, Homabay, and Siaya counties who called for the firing of electoral commission officials implicated in cases of corruption abroad.

Yet, accountability for police abuses has been sorely missing, Human Rights Watch said.

The Independent Policing Oversight Authority (IPOA), a civilian police accountability institution, has investigated many abuses in the Nyanza region. In September 2016, the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions opened a public inquest into the 2013 police shootings in Kisumu. But these efforts have not resulted in any prosecutions of the police officers implicated in what appeared to be unlawful killings and maiming of protesters in western Kenya.

The government of Kenya should publicly acknowledge and condemn any and all recent unlawful and unnecessary police killings and shootings, Human Rights Watch said. Donors to the Kenyan government should support police accountability systems, particularly the Independent Policing Oversight Authority, in investigating the recent violence and releasing their findings to the public.

“With tensions still running high as the country awaits the court’s decision on the opposition’s petition, Kenyan authorities need to be vigilant in preventing more police abuses and upholding the right to peaceful protest,” Namwaya said. “Kenyans should be able to express their grievances without being beaten or killed by police.”

Post-Election Police Operations

On August 8, Kenya held its second presidential election since the disputed 2007 election that resulted in violence in which more than 1,100 people were killed and another 650,000 displaced. Within hours after the initial results started streaming live on television on August 9, 2017, but before the electoral commission announced Uhuru Kenyatta’s victory, the leading opposition candidate, Raila Odinga, expressed concerns that the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission’s (IEBC) server had been hacked and presidential results that were streaming in had been manipulated.

Following these allegations and the August 11 declaration that Kenyatta had won, opposition supporters in the capital, Nairobi, in western Kenya, and in parts of the coastal region took to the streets in protest. Victims and witnesses told Human Rights Watch that Kenyan police responded violently, hurling teargas canisters and water cannons in residential areas and using lethal fire.

Human Rights Watch interviewed 43 people in Kisumu and Siaya counties about the events, including, among others, victims and witnesses.

On August 11 and 12, according to victims of police beatings and witnesses to the events, police conducted house-to-house operations in the town of Kisumu, using lethal fire against unarmed protesters, violently storming into homes at night, looking for and beating mainly men, extorting money, stealing electronic goods, and in some cases raping women. In Siaya county, police dispersed crowds of protesters at market centers along Kisumu’s Busia Road and pursued them into villages, throwing teargas into homes and beating residents.

Killings by Police in Kisumu and Siaya Counties

Human Rights Watch interviewed family members and witnesses to at least 12 killings by police, 10 in Kisumu county and two in neighboring Siaya county, in the former Nyanza region of western Kenya. Some occurred as police tried to suppress protests, but others occurred during house-to-house operations or in places with no protests.

While some victims were protesters, others were not and were either caught up in the violence or attacked inside their homes. A 33-year-old man from the Obunga neighborhood said police found him and friends standing outside his house on the morning of August 12, and started shooting at them without talking to them. “They arrived in a Land Cruiser that was followed in the air by a helicopter and they just started firing at us: They did not even want to know what we were doing outside my house. We had to run for dear life.”

In Kisumu county, Human Rights Watch saw six bodies that witnesses described as victims of police shootings and beatings, four of them in the Jaramogi Oginga Odinga Hospital, also known as the Russia Hospital, mortuary. Two young men in their teens from the Nyaori area had gunshot wounds. A witness said that police came into the homes of the two teens, Onyango Otieno and Ochieng Gogo, on the morning of August 12, beat them, then told them to run away and shot them in the back: “As they were running away, police shot them at the back and took their bodies away.”

According to relatives and witnesses, two others died from police beatings on the night of August 11 in the Kondele area. Lennox Ochieng, a 27-year-old man, was beaten to death by police in his house in the Kondele neighborhood. Another body, described in hospital records as “unknown male alias Kimoko,” had bullet wounds, but witnesses could not describe the circumstances of his death.

Another victim, 35-year-old David Ochieng, was shot while he was protesting on the night of August 11. An acquaintance who was with him during protests said he saw police shoot him around 11 p.m. as he threw stones at the police. “The bullet went through his right ear and came out through the other side,” the acquaintance said. “He could not talk at the time we took him to hospital but he could communicate through signs. He gave us the phone contacts of his next of kin by writing in the air using signs.” Ochieng died in the hospital on the morning of August 13.

Six-month-old Samantha Pendo was another victim. Eye witnesses told researchers that on August 11, police violently attacked her family, kicking, slapping, and beating with gun butts and batons everyone in the house, including the baby. A nurse at Aga Khan Hospital said that the baby had a fractured skull and was in critical condition. The baby died in the hospital on August 16.

Police carried out the house-to-house operations in Kisumu, as well as villages in Kisumu and Siaya counties. Residents of the village of Dago said that on the night of August 11, police officers attached to the Dago police post, 25 kilometers north of Kisumu, started firing at villagers strolling on the road, unaware of the protests in other parts of Kisumu. In the process, they said a police officer shot 21-year-old Vincent Omondi Ochieng, who was working with Elections Observations Group (ELOG), a Kenyan organization that has observed the past two elections.

“Vincent and his younger uncle were returning from watching a football game at a few minutes past midnight when police officers, who were hiding at Bar Union Primary School, started shooting at them,” said his aunt, who lived nearby. “His uncle told us that Vincent was on phone and the first two shots startled him and he fell. It was the third shot that killed him.” Human Rights Watch researchers observed the bullet wound in his chest in the heart area.

While Human Rights Watch confirmed the killings described above, the death toll in Kisumu county could be higher. Many witnesses and family members were afraid of speaking up or even going to the hospital, while others said they could not immediately establish the whereabouts of their relatives.

In Kisumu’s Nyamasaria neighborhood, for example, witnesses and relatives of a young man who was shot dead near Well Petrol Station on the night of August 11 declined to be interviewed out of fear of victimization. In Nyalenda, a family said it could not trace two young men three days after initial protests. In Siaya county, demonstrations also turned violent as police dispersed protesters and carried out search operations in the villages. Evidence given to Human Rights Watch suggests that police killed two young men.

In Siaya county, relatives and two witnesses said that on August 12, police beat to death 17-year-old Kennedy Juma Otieno, after pursuing him from Kisumu’s Busia Road, where they had dispersed protesters with teargas. Human Rights Watch and Kenya National Commission on Human Rights members saw his body in the Sega Mission Hospital Mortuary in Siaya county. His hand, head, and face were swollen.

Relatives and a witness said that police shot and killed Zacchaeus Okoth, a 21-year-old man from Anduro village, Siaya county, on the night of August 11, as the police used teargas and live bullets to disperse crowds of protesters after the announcement of Kenyatta’s victory.

Beatings of Protesters and Residents in Kisumu
On the night Kenyatta was declared the winner, the electricity went off in some parts of Kisumu, plunging residential areas into darkness just as police began door-to-door operations that targeted mainly men for attacks, according to victims of beatings interviewed by Human Rights Watch. At least 100 people were injured by gunshots and beatings.

A police officer in Kisumu said that a combined team of officers from various police units, such as the General Service Unit, Quick Response Team of the Administration Police, Border Patrol, Special Crime Prevention Unit, and Kenya Wildlife Service officers were responsible for the operations. The officers were drawn from several counties and were ferried to Kisumu neighborhoods days before the announcement of presidential results. Plainclothes officers, whom Kisumu residents suspected to be from the directorate of criminal investigations, swarmed the neighborhoods before the demonstrations started.

Multiple witnesses, including those who said they were victims of police beatings in Nyamasaria, Arina, Kondele, Manyatta, and Car Wash neighborhoods, said police responded to the “Uhuru must go” chant with teargas and gunfire. They said police dispersed with teargas any groups of more than three people, even people who were not protesters. International human rights law and Kenya’s constitution guarantee the right of peaceful assembly.

House-to-house operations began soon after the electricity went off. A 32-year-old father of two and resident of Nyalenda said: “Police started throwing teargas in the neighborhood, sometimes even in the houses, and shooting.”

At 11 a.m. on August 12, according to witnesses, police carried out a door-to-door operation in Arina estate, beating men and children and sexually harassing women. A 17-year-old high school student said she was among a group of people the police beat that day for no reason: “I was in the house with my younger brother when police kicked the door open and started beating and stepping on me. They then went to the neighbor where they beat a lady there and her brother.”

Police raided the home of a 35-year-old freelance photographer in Obunga estate and beat him severely: “They broke into my house and started beating me. They were hitting mainly the joints – knee, shoulder, arms, head, and back. They stepped on me for a while and then left me lying there, unable to walk. They broke my rib.”

Human Rights Watch interviewed 20 victims of police beatings and gunshot injuries during the protests and during house-to-house operations in Kisumu alone.

From the hospital records, at least 27 people with injuries were admitted at Jaramogi Oginga Odinga Teaching and Referral Hospital (Russia Hospital) on August 11 and 12. On August 17, officials of a makeshift Disaster Management Center told Human Rights Watch that they had registered an additional 92 victims of police beatings and shootings who were yet to seek treatment at any hospital due to fear of reprisal.

Edris Omondi, the head of Disaster Management Center, said: “Some of them have very serious injuries like broken legs, arms and ribs. Others cannot walk or eat at all and they will need urgent medical attention.”

Extortion and Theft from Kisumu Residents
Many witnesses said the police broke into their houses and demanded money or simply stole money and electronic items.

In Arina, a 30-year-old woman said that on August 12, police took Ksh5,000 (US$50) from her and another Ksh2,000 (US$19) from her brother. A 15-year-old girl in Arina said that on the same day police kicked the door to their house open and started beating her with gun butts and batons and stepping on her. The officers took Ksh2,200 (US$21) meant for buying charcoal and food.

In Obunga neighborhood, many families fled the harassment and beatings to seek refuge at Kudho Primary School on the night of August 11. Many said that when they returned home, they found electronics such as radio receivers and television sets and money missing, and presumed that police were responsible.

Those who reported the theft to the nearest police stations in Kondele, Nyamasaria, and Obunga said police were unwilling to investigate and said that thieves had stolen the goods.

“Police are telling us that it was the thieves who stole our items from the houses,” said a mother of three from Nyamasaria. “But which thieves were these when everyone had either run away, was writhing in pain and unable to walk, or dead?”

Additionally, Kisumu governor has revealed that 17 bodies were removed from Jaramogi Hospital Mortuary, buried at a mass grave in Mamboleo before being exhumed as an after thought and drowned in Lake Victoria by the police. Anyang’ Nyong’o has described it as a genocide. Clearly, the truth couldn’t be any further given the highest levels of evil operations. One wonders why a legitimate win would attract such a magnitude of violent cleansing. A healing wound of ethnic isolation might Have just been opened afresh by such terror unleashed on the Luo land by the same government  that that supposed to protect them. The operation style by The police including home invasions, shooting from behind of victims clearly shows the motive was more than maintaining peace but ensuring lives lost, clobbering of an infant of 6 months is in itself revealing the face of heartless, death agents deployed to Kisumu. It stinks to high peaks.