The return of executions and killings by gunmen has caused panic and an outcry from the public and rights groups at the Coast.
Suspected al Shabaab returnees have been killed — the public suspects security officers.
State officials seen as spies and informers have been gruesomely murdered in the past few months. Al Shabaab sympathisers are suspected.
On December 31, Omar Salim Unda, 27, was shot at close range by two gunmen who blocked his car in Watamu, Kilifi county.
Witnesses said gunmen dragged him out of his car and shot him three times in the head and neck at close range.
Salim’s family had been subjected to police raids for about three years, prior to his killing, his father Salim Unda told reporters at the scene.
He said that his son had been arrested and released. He also had disappeared for months.
A few days to Christmas celebrations, a suspected Kisauni crime gang leader only identified as Ogolla was murdered and his body dumped in Maungu, Taita Taveta County along the Nairobi-Mombasa highway.
On Thursday, his widow told the Star the family is yet to get any preliminary investigation report from the police.
“We don’t know why he was killed. We reported to Bamburi police station and we are still waiting for any report,” the widow said, requesting anonymity.
A postmortem carried out at Moi Hospital in Voi showed that his neck been broken and a rope tied around his neck to suggest suicide.
Voi subcounty police commander Bernastein Shali confirmed the findings to the Star.
Ogolla was arrested on April 17, 2019, after police accused him of being a prime mover of stolen property in the Mombasa areas. They said he owned four shops in Kisauni and Mwembe Tayari for selling stolen electronics.
“These are the notorious thieves we have been looking for. We are warning the rest that we have officers who mean well for our city,” former Mombasa police boss Johnstone Ipara said.
While arresting Ogolla with four other suspects, police recovered 43 mobile phones, 10 computer monitors, two projectors, two TV decoders, two subwoofers, 22 laptops, two projectors and two 42-inch television sets.
“How was he killed if he was once arrested?” asked Muslim for Human rights response officer Francis Auma.
Authorities condemn extrajudicial killings and say those found committing them will be punished.
On December 27 last year, civil society organisations in Kwale held a press conference calling on authorities to investigate extrajudicial killings and enforced disappearances.
“Kwale county has continued to experience grave violations of human rights for four years that have cost over 50 lives. More than 25 people have been abducted and disappeared without a trace in the dark silence of state instruments,” read a statement from human rights groups.
The groups included the Human Development Agenda, the Kwale Muslim Development Initiative, Kenya Muslims Youth Alliance, Diani Chale Management Trust, Sauti Ya Wanawake-Kwale, Human Rights Agenda (Huria) and the Supreme Council of Kenya Muslims.
The groups said extrajudicial killings and enforced disappearances have left more 300 children orphaned and 70 women widowed.
Omar Shehe, imam of the Mabokoni mosque, and elder Bakari Dondo were killed by a panga-wielding gang in Msambweni, Kwale on August.
Reports indicate the two were killed by al Shabaab returnees for spying and informing on al Shabaab sympathisers for the government.
Days after the killings, police gunned down a suspected al Shabaab returnee, Mohamed Mwatsumiro, after an exchange of gunfire at his house. One police officer was injured.
Two months after killing of Shehe and Dondo, two administrators were killed in a similar manner in Mbwajumwali village, Lamu county, in December. Assailants stormed their office and hacked chief Mohamed Haji Famau and his assistant Malik Athman Shee to death.
Coast regional commissioner Joseph Elungata held security baraza to discuss the murders but to date, the killers have not been apprehended.
Intelligence reports linked terror suspect Kassim Ahmed Ali to the murders.
The murders have caused an uproar among human rights groups.
Yusuf Lule, director of Human Rights Agenda, said on Thursday the killings create more sympathisers and encourage more people to join terrorist groups.
“We agree the sympathizers are a threat to our security but there is no way we can succeed with Countering Violent Extremism (CVE) programmes as they continue with extrajudicial killings,” Lule said.
Let police arrest suspects and take them to court because revenge killings are causing more harm to police and citizens, he said on Thursday.
The Senate Justice, Legal Affairs and Human Rights committee led by Nandi's Samson Cherargei promised to address extra-judicial killings and enforced disappearances after hearing testimony in April about chilling murders.
The senators had sought to find out the extent of extra-judicial killings in the county.
(Edited by V. Graham)
