Dismembered bodies found at Kenya dump
Police in Kenya reported discovering five bags containing the dismembered remains of several women at a rubbish dump in Nairobi on Saturday.
Detectives had been searching the Mukuru slum since Friday, after finding the bodies of six other women in sacks amidst piles of rubbish.
Officers stated that the bags found on Saturday contained severed legs and two torsos. They speculated that the deaths might be linked to the activities of cultists or serial killers.
However, the country’s police watchdog announced on Friday that it was investigating potential police involvement in the grisly deaths, which occur amid allegations of widespread human rights abuses by officers during recent anti-government protests.
Human rights organizations have accused the police of fatally shooting demonstrators protesting against planned tax hikes and of abducting or arbitrarily arresting hundreds more.
Local media reported that police deployed two water cannons to the scene on Saturday after angry protesters threatened to open the bags containing human remains.
Officers from the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) urged the public to remain calm and allow them space to investigate, accusing protesters of hindering their efforts.
“We want to assure the public that our investigations will be thorough and cover a wide range of areas, including but not limited to the possible activities of cultists and serial killings,” the DCI stated.
Earlier, the Independent Police Oversight Authority (IPOA) confirmed it was investigating potential police involvement in the macabre deaths.
“The bodies, wrapped in bags and secured by nylon ropes, had visible marks of torture and mutilation,” the watchdog said, noting that the dump site was less than 100 metres from a local police station.
It added that “widespread allegations of police involvement in unlawful arrests, [and] abductions” meant it was undertaking a preliminary probe to establish whether there was any police connection.
Kenya’s police force is frequently accused of extrajudicial killings by human rights activists, but convictions are extremely rare. Both Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International have previously accused the force of “political interference in efforts to achieve accountability for police abuses”.
The country’s under-pressure leader, President William Ruto, has vowed that those behind the killings will be punished.
“We are a democratic country guided by the rule of law. Those involved in mysterious killings in Nairobi and any other part of the country will be held to account,” he said in a post to X, formerly Twitter.
The case is the latest disturbing such incident in Kenya.
Last year the country was left horrified after the remains of hundreds of people associated with a doomsday cult were discovered in the Indian Ocean coastal town of Malindi.
Paul Nthenge Mackenzie went on trial in Mombasa earlier this week on charges of terrorism and murder over the deaths of more than 440 of his followers. He denies the allegations.
He is alleged to have encouraged men, women and children to starve themselves in order to “meet Jesus”, in one of the world’s worst cult-related massacres.
