When confronted with human rights reports or media accounts, Kenyan authorities continue to either deny or dismiss the existence of government policy on enforced disappearances and extrajudicial executions. Majority of extrajudicial executions are preceded by enforced disappearance, which significantly increases whenever security agencies are engaged in eliminating suspected organised criminal groups. Security agencies have also been implicated in enforced disappearances and extrajudicial executions during counter-terrorism operations. These operations are undertaken by multiple security agencies including police, the army and para-military police.
Four years ago on June 23, 2016, Willie Kimani, a lawyer with International Justice Mission (IJM), his client Josephat Mwenda and driver Joseph Muiruri were abducted after leaving a court.
Their bodies – stashed in gunny bags and with apparent marks of torture- were found a week later at a river. Five people; four police officers and a civilian who later confessed to the heinous crimes are facing charges for the killing of the trio.
Aggrey Juma the Policy and Advocacy Manager at IJM, recalls the horror of June 23, 2016 -the night the three men were murdered- and speaks about issues of enforced disappearances, extrajudicial killings and other systemic human rights violations.
In June of 2016, an incident took place that will forever shape my perception of the justification and need for police accountability and reform in Kenya.
On a chilly Thursday morning, on June 23, 2016, my colleague and friend Willie Kimani, taxi driver Joseph Muiruri and client Josephat Mwenda went missing as they left Mavoko Law Courts. Mwenda was facing trumped-up charges levelled against him by a senior police officer who had allegedly shot him on his hand and IJM was representing him in court.
After an unsuccessful whole night’s search, retracing the steps of our colleagues, from Mlolongo to Syokimau, police station visits and even the AP camp, the next six days were a string of no stones unturned search.
The initial thinking was that they had been arrested by police officers. For this reason, and confident in the protection of the constitutional 24-hour rule to present arrested persons in court, the morning of Friday 24th June found me at the Mavoko Law Courts, armed with food and cash bail awaiting their arraignment on some trumped-up charge – we had come to know that this was the norm after representing in court so many young men from poor areas. Read More ......
This post was first published on the Missing Voices website.