Four people killed by police officers on Friday morning on suspicion of being members of a criminal gang have been identified.
Collins Kibet Kirui, Collins Kipkorir, Kevin Kipyegon and Denis Kipchirchir were gunned down in Barut, Nakuru West sub-county during a security operation.
Kipyegon and Kipchirchir were said to have been brothers and orphans who lost both parents at a tender age and were living together in Barut.
On Friday, Nakuru County Police Commander Peter Mwanzo said the four were gunned down after they attempted to attack patrolling officers with arrows.
He said the incident occurred at 1am in Kwa Maiko village, a few kilometres from the site where two people were found murdered on Wednesday last week.
The police boss said the officers were responding to a tip from residents, who reported that some young people were attacking unsuspecting passers-by with arrows.
A confrontation with the suspected gang members ensued, prompting the officers to shoot the four.
But the reports have been dismissed by neighbours, who said that Kibet, Kipkorir and Kipyegon were picked up from their houses and brought to Kipchirchir’s house, where they were killed together.
They rejected reports that there was an exchange of fire and that the four had been found with a gun, saying that the boys were innocent and should have been arrested instead of being killed.
Kibet and Kipkorir, they said, were killed inside the house while Kipyegon and Kipchirchir were brought outside before the officers pulled the trigger in the same compound. Their bodies were then taken to a nearby road.
To support the police version of events, Mr Mwanzo said he had two spent cartridges that he claimed were collected from the house where the alleged execution was carried out.
"We do not oppose security agents conducting their patrols at night, because it is for our own good as residents, but the young souls that were killed were innocent. They could have arrested them and let the law take its course instead of killing them," said a neighbour.
Mr David Kuria, a human rights defender based in Nakuru County, has called on the Inspector-General of police to conduct thorough investigations into the murders to establish the motive of the killing.
He said it was unfortunate that the young people lost their lives in a gruesome manner, adding that the four were picked up from their houses by officers who knew the people they were looking for.
He described the deaths as blatant extrajudicial killings, calling upon the Inspector-General of police to deploy officers from outside the county to investigate the matter.
“I have talked with neighbours and some of the relatives and what I gathered was that the boys were picked up from their houses by officers and executed in the house of one of the victims. The matter should be thoroughly investigated," he said.
