Two friends of rights activist Caroline Mwatha were used by the police to lure her to the place where she was killed, her father says.
This grim scenario is promoted by her parents who dismiss claims that their daughter died of a botched five-months’ abortion. She was married and her husband worked and still works in Dubai.
The parents vigorously dismiss claims their daughter died from an accidentally botched abortion — they say the death was deliberate, murder, made to look like an abortion gone wrong.
Her father Stanislas Mbai was speaking during the celebration of Mwatha’s life at Dandora Justice Centre on Saturday. They said they no longer see those “friends”.
“Caroline had two lady friends who used to visit her quite often and there was one who lived with her for two weeks prior to her disappearance. Once the incident [Mwatha’s disappearance and death] happened, they vanished and never even bothered to visit or contact us,” he said.
Mbai said that they are still not satisfied with the investigations as Mwatha’s death was very unusual.
Her father told the Star that the last case Mwatha was following involved police officers linked to killing innocent young people in Dandora.
Dandora Justice Centre working group member Wilfred Olal said Mwatha was committed to ending the extrajudicial killings and would take every case she followed to the Independent Policing Oversight Authority (IPOA) for conclusive investigations.
“She was involved in the documentation of extrajudicial killings in Dandora and was committed to highlighting the ills committed by rogue officers,” her father said.
Mwatha went missing on February 6 last year. Five days later, the police broke the news that her body had been found at City Mortuary, but under another name.
Her parents accused the police of arranging her deadly botched abortion-execution and covering up her murder, which they said was thoughtfully planned to avoid any suspicion. Police deny any wrongdoing.
The parents questioned why the police had a lot of information about the cause of her death within a very short time — even before a postmortem was carried out.
Family, friends, members of the community and human rights defenders from justice centres attended the memorial ceremony.
Another activist questioned why police investigators surrounded the pathologist, Peter Ndegwa, as he read out the postmortem report and followed keenly what he said to the media.
“We don’t see this happening in other cases,” he said.
During investigations, police linked a clinic in Dandora IV to her death.
(Edited by V. Graham)
