Who’s fooling whom in the Kware murders mystery?
Acting Inspector-General of the National Police Service Douglas Kanja during the press conference in Nairobi on Sunday, July 14, 2024.
What you need to know:
- The discovery of multiple bodies in Mukuru Kwa Njenga slums, exposes Kenya's lack of a missing persons database and raising questions about police effectiveness.
- The case highlights longstanding issues of police misconduct and the public's distrust in law enforcement.
- While authorities quickly arrested a suspect and labelled him a serial killer, many Kenyans remain sceptical, demanding a thorough and unbiased investigation.
It took one woman’s dream about her sister being dumped in the Kware area of Mukuru Kwa Njenga slums on the outskirts of Nairobi for a crime scene to be discovered. Never mind that the scene was right next to the police station. It would be ironic if it were anywhere else, but unfortunately, for Kenya, it’s just ordinary news.
After all, this is a country where one in three Kenyans has experienced abuse or harassment by the police, and between 2019 and 2021, more than 500 killings by police have been documented in Kenya, according to the International Justice Mission.
Missing people
It took one woman’s dream to discover the bodies partly because Kenya does not have a database for missing persons. Activists have heavily criticised this, arguing that it leads to a lack of accountability and makes it impossible to track patterns of violence.
Read also: The man accused of killing Kware women
When I was kidnapped at gunpoint in 2020, my friends reported me as missing to the police, only to receive this callous response: “We can’t do anything. Try and check again with us in the morning.” My friends turned to my employer at the time, who made the necessary calls to ensure that a search party set out at night to find me. This tells me that missing people are on their own and can’t rely on the police to find them or protect them.
While Inspector-General of Police Douglas Kanja said that 10 bodies had been recovered by July 15, locals contradicted this, claiming that over 15 bodies had been found. This is enough bad news to terrify anyone.
Now, as a "true Kenyan," you know that there are two different kinds of mathematics: the government maths and the Wanjiku maths. I won’t ask you to pick a side.
“The modus operandi was almost the same. If you look at the age, it was between 18 and 30. They are all female. If you look at how the bodies have been disguised and packaged... all the same,” he said while presenting multiple theories to explain the murders, from rogue medical practitioners involved in criminal activities, cult activities, or a serial killer.
Serial killer
In the latest reports, the police have arrested a man they believe is a key suspect in the murders, with the Directorate of Criminal Investigations declaring that we are dealing with a “psychopathic serial killer with no respect for human life.” But how do they know what they know, and in such a short time? Kenyans online have poked holes in the hurried arrests and investigations, and rightly so, given the amount of turnaround time in which they had to come up with a suspect, a theory, a label for the criminal, and a confession!
At the very minimum, the government owes Kenyans a thorough investigation into the matter and must act without bias and conjecture.
Faith Oneya comments on social and gender topics. (@FaithOneya; [email protected])
