• Hussein Khalid, executive director of Haki Africa, told the Star he believes fewer police are using guns in extrajudicial killings, as guns can be traced.
• Instead, they employ more strangling, bludgeoning and other methods, he says. The rights activist said in both cases witnesses claim to know the officers.
Are rogue police officers ditching guns for extrajudicial killings of criminal suspects and going for strangulation, bludgeoning and other means of elimination?
That's what Haki Africa executive director Hussein Khalid says he is coming to believe and where the evidence is pointing.
Police spokesman Charles Owino declined comment.
An officer at Pangani police station told the Star police had been trailing two suspects - Ramadhan Bakari and Jamal Maina- for crimes in Eastleigh and Mathare.
Concerns are mounting over rising cases of abduction and killing of suspected criminals in Nairobi, with lobby groups fearing police could be using torture and strangulation.
Ramadhan Bakari and Jamal Maina were allegedly arrested by plain-clothes officers in Nairobi in December and January, respectively. Their bodies were discovered at City Mortuary after a prolonged search by their families.
Bakari, 17, was a Form 2 student at Balozi High School. Lobby groups following his case say that he was arrested on December 10 at 4pm at Eastleigh near Mlango Kubwa area by plain-clothes officers.
The officers are said to be known to locals.
He was not arrested alone. He was with a friend who was released after his family followed up.
Bakaris’ family did not get the information on time, so he remained in custody. When they later followed up at Pangani police station, the officers denied ever arresting someone of Bakari’s description, prompting a frantic search.
From Kamukunji, Muthaiga to Central police stations, the family got nothing. A visit to the morgue later in the month confirmed their fears.
A contact of a family friend who works at the mortuary told them to check after seeing Bakari's story on television, including his picture.
Bakari’s body bore clear bruises. A postmortem examination conducted on December 29 found that he was strangled to death.
His body also bore signs of torture, with injury marks on the head, arms and legs. Blunt trauma caused bleeding in the brain.
Jamal Maina was also picked at 4pm at Shauri Moyo on Friday, January 15 and was bundled into the boot of a white Toyota Probox saloon car. He was a matatu driver.
The following day, his family found his body at the city mortuary and records at the facility show it was taken there by police officers who said they collected it on the banks of the Nairobi River.
A postmortem examination on Tuesday showed that the body bore signs of strangulation, torture marks, bruises and blunt trauma to the head.
Khalid who has been working with the two families to follow the cases told the Star that he suspected the police was ditching shooting of suspects as a way of evading accountability.
"It is easy to trace back the bullets to the officer who fired it. Now they are going for tortures and strangulation to clean their tracks and evade being held accountable," he said.
Maina was buried on Tuesday at Kariokor cemetery.
In both cases, he said, witnesses claimed to recognise the officers.
"The officers are well known by locals. This is impunity and extrajudicial killings must come to a stop," Khalid said.
(Edited by V. Graham)