Members of the public mill around a vehicle carrying officers from Recce Squad at Nairobi Funeral Home on July 13, 2024 where bodies recovered from Kware were taken for forensic investigations.
The late Caroline Mwatha’s death in 2019 stirred anger among human rights defenders and Kenyans in general. She was the founder of Dandora Community Centre and a human rights activist whose life was cut short at the tender age of 37. She set up the organisation to highlight cases of police brutality in her neighbourhood.
Dandora, like many low-income residential areas in Kenya, have historically borne the brunt of police brutality. Caroline’s death allegedly occurred due to a botched abortion, according to a report issued by the police. Not many believed this because prior to her death, Caroline claimed to have received threats to her life. Soon after making that statement, she disappeared, only for her body to be found at City Mortuary.
Kidnappings and disappearances of Kenyans have become common. Many families are still waiting for their kidnapped loved ones to return. The public anger spilling into the courts’ corridor shows the extent of the frustration families are going through.
One such family is that of the Ethiopian Samson Techlemichael, kidnapped on Nairobi streets over two years ago and still at large.
Despite government protestations, fingers keep being pointed at the police for the kidnappings and disappearances. The refusal to respect court orders in relation to disappeared Kenyans by acting Inspector-General of Police Gilbert Masengeli only proves States involvement in the act, it doesn’t absolve it. The recent Gen Z-led protests highlighted once more the kidnapping and disappearance of Kenyans. Grab and kill have become the modus operandi for the police.
Recent “unknown” deaths
The discovery of 42 bodies in Kware was blamed on alleged serial killer Collins Jumaisi Khalusha. Many more bodies were discovered after the recent protests. The idea that a serial killer would operate with impunity metres from a police station and still manage to escape from another police station with even better security given its location is too ridiculous.
At the centre of the deaths of innocent Kenyans is the City Mortuary (now Nairobi Funeral Home). It has been turned into a State facility to offer cover-up for suspicious deaths of Kenyans. Despite the high number of bodies that turned up at the mortuary within the month of the recent protests, precisely 247, the facility denied that they were in any way linked to the protests.
However, human rights activities who visited the facilities alleged that some of the bodies had fresh gunshot wounds. Majority of the bodes were registered as “unknown” by the police themselves, according to the Daily Nation of August 4.
Coincidentally, the Independent Policing Oversight Authority, which is tasked to deal with cases of abuse by the police, has also struggled to authenticate the claims made by human rights defenders as it says it has not been getting necessary information from the police and hospitals to assist with post-mortem examinations and investigations.
The rushed decision to dispose of bodies currently lying at the mortuary by Governor Johnson Sakaja’s administration is only adding more fuel to the suspicion of involvement by the security agents in the recent “unknown” deaths in a potential cover-up.
Human rights violations
Having the courts rubber stamp the decision by the county has added even more speculation that this is a cover-up most likely being sanctioned from above by faceless State officials.
The whole idea of disposing of bodies is itself mired in human rights violations. Bodies must be interred with dignity. The language of “disposing” indicates how little respect the government has of Kenyans both in life and death. It is shocking for the government to be silent on unlawful murders and then dispose of the bodies as if they are rotten cabbages.
Dignity for the poor is something that the government seems to struggle with. The dead who are brought to the public mortuaries must be processed in a dignified manner. Every human walking the street of Kenya has an identity that cannot just stop because they are now dead.
Most Kenyans are registered at birth and issued with an identification number and card at 18 years. Technology has also made it possible for Kenyans to be issued with new forms of ID cards. The same technology should bear the details of the dead that can easily be matched up with their DNA and their details made public so that their loved ones can claim the bodies and give them a dignified send off. For those with no family, it is the responsibility of the State to ensure they are afforded dignity in death, preferably with independent witnesses present.
“The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil, is for good men to do nothing,” said Edmund Burke, an Anglo-Irish philosopher. These words define today’s Kenya best, where evil festers and accountability by officials is non-existent.
Ms Guyo is a legal researcher, [email protected], @kdiguyo
