NAIROBI: Kenya’s human rights commission told AFP on Monday that victims and their families have requested an investigation into a flood of kidnappings and extrajudicial killings.
Since anti-government demonstrations in June last year were suppressed, there has been an increase in fury in the West African nation over dozens of unsolved cases of people being kidnapped and sometimes tortured or killed.
” We are calling for the international criminal court ( ICC ) to intervene… because the Kenya security justice system has failed”, said Ernest Cornel of the Kenya human rights commission.
” It is officers who are accused of conducting the forced disappearances, conducting illegal murders”, he told AFP.
” It’s unthinkable that the same security guards who are accused of this crime will next step in and begin looking into them.”
Since the June demonstrations, his organization has documented 29 missing people and more than 60 illegal murders and 89 abductions.
Aslam Longton and Bob Njagi both claimed at a press conference on Sunday that they were subjected to torture by surveillance personnel after being kidnapped in August and have lived in fear ever since.
In a statement, the couple stated that they wanted to “protect additional Kenyans who are at risk of experiencing the same atrocities.”
On Friday, the carcasses of two missing young people thought to have been kidnapped, Justus Mutumwa and Martin Mwau, turned up in a graveyard in the investment Nairobi.
The bodies were discovered shortly after federal police chief Douglas Kanja testified in court that he had no idea where the fresh men were.
Dancan Kyalo claimed Mutumwa’s body showed signs of abuse, including markings on Mutumwa’s ankles that suggested he had been tied up.
” His face had deep breaks, his eyes had been pierced”, Kyalo said.
Justin Muturi, the public service secretary of Kenya, revealed that he needed to call President William Ruto in June to arrange for his own kidnapped son’s transfer.
” This is a purposeful, state-orchestrated battle of terror”, the Kenya human rights commission said.
In 2010, the Hague-based ICC began investigating violence following 2007 votes which left more than 1, 100 individuals dead.
Six folks, including Ruto, were prosecuted for crimes against humanity including death.
However, the trials were later dropped due to a lack of evidence, with a former deputy attorney blaming a continuous battle of testimony harassment.
