• Juma Omar Bakaya, 29, and Hamisi Mwinyi, 17, were found dead at the Coast General Teaching and Referral Hospital morgue on February 22, six days after they were arrested.
• Muhuri rapid response officer condemned the religious and political leadership in Mombasa for being silent on such matters.
Image: JOHN CHESOLI
Image: JOHN CHESOLI
Muslims for Human Rights has contacted its lawyers to sue the state for the murder of Omar Faraj, a brother of a former Mombasa MCA.
Three night raids, five arrested, two dead, two missing and one known survivor is the grim statistics in what appears to be the latest case of extrajudicial killings in the Likoni.
This comes after the families of two of the five people arrested after the raids in Shika Adabu, Kibundani, Kiteje and Ujamaa areas of Likoni between February 16 and February 24, buried their loved ones on Monday.
Juma Omar Bakaya, 29, and Hamisi Mwinyi, 17, were found dead at the Coast General Teaching and Referral Hospital morgue on February 22, six days after they were arrested.
Muhuri rapid response officer Francis Auma said they found Bakaya’s neck broken and his body had three bullet wounds in the head and chest.
Mwinyi’s body also had three bullet wounds in the head and chest.
They were buried in Kibundani and Kiteje respectively on Monday evening.
According to family members, the two were arrested on the night of February 16 after a team of more than 15 security agents, including two white foreigners, raided their homes.
Ali Tengeza, 20, was also arrested that night after the team broke into their house between 1 am and 2 am.
Tengeza’s mother Saumu Hamisi said the security agents took away phones after ransacking their house.
Simakeni Juma, Tengeza’s grandmother said police should produce her grandson.
“I want my grandson back. Whether alive or dead. They can drop the body at the seashore if he is already dead. There are many fishermen, they will pick it and bring it to us,” Simakeni said.
The security agents broke all the security lights on their way out.
Tengeza, who has no job, does odd menial work whenever he finds any.
This is the second time Tengeza has been taken by police.
He was reporting to Likoni police station once every week as part of probation after his first arrest for reasons not clearly stated.
He is still missing. The family could not find him in any of the police stations, hospitals or mortuaries at the Coast.
Muhuri said on February 19, security agents raided the home of Azizi Mchangamwe, 26, and arrested him, in Shika Adabu, Likoni constituency.
He was released unhurt three days later, on February 22.
On February 24, security agents again raided the house of Bakari Mbwana Mwanyota, 38, and arrested him in Ujamaa, Likoni. He is still missing.
His wife, Sauda Omar, said the security personnel handcuffed her husband and made him lie down in the sitting room while they ransacked the house.
“They took my phone and asked for my password. They then took photos of me and my ID card before ordering me and my children to lock ourselves in the bedroom,” Sauda said.
They then left, with the two foreign agents leading Mwanyota away.
“My children do not want to go to school saying they are afraid they will also be taken away by police like their father,” Sauda said.
All three operations occurred between 1 am and 2 am.
Muhuri rapid response officer condemned the religious and political leadership in Mombasa for being silent on such matters.
“We have laws and courts. One should be charged and tried in court for any wrongdoing, not be summarily executed,” Auma said.
He put President Uhuru Kenyatta and Interior CS Fred Matiang’i on the spot over the killings.
Muhuri has been advocating prosecution of those involved in extrajudicial killings, taking the cases to the office of the UN Special Rapporteur who visited Kenya in 2019.
The human rights body has also escalated the matter to the African Commission on Human and People’s Rights in the Gambia.
“We have not seen any reprieve. It is time the international community intervenes,” Auma said.
According to a UK-based publication, Declassified UK, the Anti-Terror Police Unit is implicated in the Rapid Response Team RRT night-time raids, which have gunned down not only terror suspects but also innocents people.
The RRT commandos – backed by NIS and ATPU officers – undertake raids against terror suspects in plain clothes, using unmarked hire cars, and swapping between private or unregistered number plates, to avoid identification, according to Declassified UK.
Such instances include the murder of Omar Faraj, a man killed in a mistaken raid in his home in October 2012, and the alleged summary execution of five other terror suspects in separate cases, which Declassified revealed were operations undertaken by the RRT.
Speaking to the Star on Wednesday, Muhuri evaluation, monitoring and communication officer Ernest Cornel said they are suing the state out of public interest.
However, the family pulled out at the last minute after Muhuri contacted them and managed to at first convince them to sue the state.
Police have however dismissed the Declassified UK reports.
Police spokesman Charles Owino says the reports are malicious and serving certain interests.
Owino, in a previous interview with the Star, said security units dealing with terrorism are well known and in the public domain, saying that is no special squad.
“I am not aware of such a team, a Rendition Operations Team. We have an Anti-Terrorism Unit and the National Counter Terrorism Centre which is multi-agency. These are open agencies,” he told the Star on the phone last September.
He said they do not kill suspects because killing them is like killing information.
“It is retrogressive to kill suspects, more so those involved in terrorism. So those are just reports by people who want to tarnish our name and that of our dedicated security officers‚” he said.
Edited by Kiilu Damaris