A pregnant woman from Tana River on Wednesday said that a security officer kicked and punched her in the stomach during an operation to find abducted Italian lady Silvia Romano on December 15.
During the operation, 97 locals (53 men and 44 women) were arrested in
Chira, Assa and Bilisa in Garsen constituency.
Halima Mohamed said her
health
status is uncertain as she has difficulties walking and agonising stomach pain.
She alleges that the officers stepped and sat on top of her in a crowded police land-cruiser after the arrest.
Another one-year-old boy Mahmoud Hassan was pushed and hit his head on the tarmac when his mother Fatuma Mariam, was being arrested.
He sustained nose bruises. A third
youth is nursing fractured limb.
They were kept in the cold and rained on but 67 of them were released later and ordered to report to DCIO offices when called.
Their IDs were confiscated.
Romano was abducted by four men on November 20 and is yet to be traced.
Five of their leaders are still undergoing grilling at Malindi police station.
They are Dahir Bile (chairman), Hassan Robe (peace committee member), Hassan Shongolo, Mohamed Hassan and Dakane Osman.
The victims briefed the Star on Tuesday and Wednesday when rights group Muslims for Human Rights (Muhuri) held a fact-finding mission in the areas of the operation.
Adam Gure, 76, said: "Police wanted us to bring out the Italian. We told them we don't know where she is."
Muhuri Tana River field officer Ogle Abdi said one of the three communities in the area has been profiled as a criminal.
"This is a recipe for a massacre as witnessed in 1984 in Wagalla," he said.
Muhuri Rapid Response officer Francis Auma and project assistant Fredrick Okado condemned the manner in which the operation was done.
"We have not seen such high-level rescue mission involving even a helicopter when a Kenyan is abducted. Kenyans are treated as lesser citizens and this is wrong," he said.
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MUHURI rapid response officer Francis Auma (center) with women who were arrested in connection with the abduction of Italian lady Sylvia Romano, December 18, 2018/ Ernest Cornel.
MUHURI chairman Khelef Khalifa said the NGO will sue police for inhumane acts.
"We are disturbed by this act of collective punishment reminiscent of the colonial era where civilians were put in deplorable conditions as they went through untold suffering," Khalifa said.
Area DCIO Wycliff Sifunah refused to comment on the claims of police brutality during the operation.
"The only person authorized to give details is operation commander who is Noah Mwivanda. I have answers but I can't tell you. There is protocol," he said at his office in Minjila on Tuesday.
Mwivandah who is Coast police commander did not pick calls.
But on Monday he told the Standard newspaper "those arrested were in the hands of anti-terror officers who were investigating the matter".
"The information is very sensitive and cannot be divulged in full because we are working round the clock to save the girl," he told the newspaper.
Romano is still in Kenya according to a cop who is pursuing her. A boat she used to cross River Tana was found abandoned four days ago.
"The abductors shot twice after crossing. It's as if they were teasing the police," the cop said.
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