It's the "dark stain" on Kenya's law enforcement, outrage is mounting.
In yet another apparent extra-judicial killing, the body of a Meru nurse allegedly abducted by cops was discovered yesterday at a Machakos mortuary.
The discovery comes days after two men suspected to be policemen walked into the Mwingi Level 4 Hospital before dawn on Thursday and pumped 10 bullets into a patient, a hawker. The man was being treated for gunshot wounds. His sister watched in horror and fears for her life.
Two policemen have been arrested and charged in the death.
Killings persist despite a direct message to President Uhuru Kenyatta by US President Barrack Obama, delivered two weeks ago by Secretary of State John Kerry, calling for an end to extrajudicial killings and enforced disappearances.
Human rights activists yesterday again demanded Uhuru urgently launch a judicial commission of enquiry into widespread killings, allegedly by security agencies.
Uhuru has yet to comment or condemn the killings.
Yesterday, 15 national and international rights groups said in a joint press statement that Kenya must "acknowledge the troubling increase of abductions" allegedly involving security agencies.
Last night police spokesman Owino Wahongo promised the Star a statement would be issued on the issue but none was received by press time.
Kenyan authorities have denied a policy of extrajudicial killings and disappearances and blame 'isolated' cases on rogue cops.
Yesterday, the body of 31-year-old Job Omariba was discovered at the Machakos District Hospital mortuary where it had been lying for eight days.
On Sunday, three police officers from Kabete and Riruta police stations, together with a taxi driver suspected to have been involved in the disappearance, were arrested by the Special Crime Prevention Unit in the case of the missing medic.
They were arraigned in a Kibera court on Monday and remanded for 10 days so police could investigate.
Omariba was a nurse at Cottolengo Catholic Mission Hospital and owned a Meru butchery. He was identified by his wife Lucy Omariba, who worked at the same hospital, and by special unit officers.
He went missing in Nairobi on August 21 after meeting a woman said to have promised to help his business. She has recorded a statement and is to testify for the prosecution.
She allegedly lured Omariba at the request of a police officer claiming he was linked to theft of five goats from his Meru farm.
According to sources, the policemen claimed Omariba slaughtered the goats for sale in his butchery.
The woman lured Omariba, who was abducted and killed.
Mortuary records indicate the body was delivered to the mortuary by police and booked as "identity unknown."
The officers who took the body allegedly said it was collected at Salama area in Machakos. No identification documents were found and initial police reports stated said he was the victim of a hit-and-run traffic accident.
Yesterday, investigators viewed the body and established it had visible injuries to the neck and hands, indicating possible torture before death.
This case comes hot on the heels the murder at Mwingi Hospital where Ngandi Malia Musyemi was executed.
The 27-year-old was shot in the ward while a second man kept watch.
Musyemi had earlier told police at the hospital that he had been carjacked in Majengo area in Kitui, blindfolded, taken to a thicket at Sosoma junction where he was shot in the head and ribs. A Good Samaritan took him to hospital where he talked to police who then departed.
His family wants to know why police abandoned the shooting victim in hospital, instead of placing him under guard, only for him to be shot again.
Two months ago there was an uproar when human rights lawyer Willie Kimani, his client Josephat Mwenda and taxi driver Joseph Muiruri were tortured and killed allegedly by police officers.
Four Administration Police officers from the Mlolongo AP camp are facing murder charges. The trio were last seen on June 23 after Kimani represented Mwenda in a shooting case he filed against a police officer. He was subsequently harassed by police after he refused to withdraw the case.
"Enforced disappearances are both illegal and devastating to families. They cause untold suffering to relatives and friends, who often never learn whether their loved one is alive or dead,” says Otsieno Namwaya, Africa researcher at New York-based Human Rights Watch.
HRW documented 34 "enforced disappearances" and 11 suspected "extrajudicial killings" over two years in Garissa, Mandera and Wajir counties as part of counter-terrorism operations in the predominantly ethnic Somali northeast.
More than 100 Kenyans have “disappeared” since the year began.
In Mombasa county alone, there have been 78 killings and enforced disappearances in two months, according to Haki Africa executive director Hussein Khalid.
On Friday, Mombasa Governor Hassan Joho is to lead demonstrations against the killings. They will coincide with President Uhuru's visit to the coastal city and tensions are high.
Mvita MP Abdulswamad Nassir says young people are being targeted.
The latest victim Coast victim is16-year-old Tony Kenga, killed by police on August 12, ostensibly for belonging to a gang. He was shot while walking home from a wedding.
On Monday evening, Joho led lawmakers, clerics, Tony's parents and the public in storming Nyali police station to demand answers about the killing. They included Nassir, Kisauni MP Rashid Bedzimba, Badi Twalib (Jomvu MP) and Mishi Mboko (Mombasa women representative).
Bedzimba said he is bitter his nephew, Salim Hanjari, was killed by police on July 21 on suspicion of terrorism-related activities.
The protests yesterday coincided with the UN International Day of Victims of Enforced Disappearances, observed annually on August 30.
Rights groups say Kenyan police, army, intelligence agencies and wildlife service are behind the wave of kidnappings and killings.
According to international human rights law, an enforced disappearance occurs when a person has been detained by government officials or their agents, followed by refusal to acknowledge deprivation of the person’s liberty or to disclose what has happened to the person.
HRW's Namwaya says Muslim communities are the most affected by disappearances, “caught between the threat of the armed militant group al Shabaab and security forces carrying out abusive counter-terrorism operations”.
“While Kenyan government officials often condemn al Shabaab's horrific violence, they remain troublingly silent about security forces’ role in enforced disappearances,” he said.
Justus Nyang’aya, country director of Amnesty International Kenya, said, “Enforced disappearance is a crime under international law. Kenya must take concrete steps towards ratifying the Convention without reservation to ensure that impunity does not prevail for this cruel human rights violation.”
In their press statement yesterday, the 15 rights groups called for investigation.
"Enforced disappearances have become widespread practice and a dark stain on the fabric of law enforcement in Kenya," said Peter Kiama, executive director of the Independent Medico-Legal Unit. "[This] can only be sustainably addressed by bringing to account those suspected of responsibility through fair trials," he said.
“While indeed Kenya faces a real security threat from al Shabaab, it must not resort to unlawful responses that amount to crimes under international law and violate human rights,” said Kamau Ngugi, executive director of the National Coalition of Human Rights Defenders.
The groups signing the statement include the Kenya National Commission on Human Rights, Kenya Human Rights Commission, National Coalition for Human Rights Defenders – Kenya, Protection International and Amnesty International Kenya. Others are Independent Medico-Legal Unit, Constitution & Reform Education Consortium, Kenyans for Peace with Truth and Justice, Africa Centre for Open Governance, among others.