Post-mortems show police killed eight suspects in cold blood

Mr. Peter Kiama, Executive Director Independent Medico-Legal Unit (IMLU) address a Conference in Nairobi to Mark this year's United Nations celebrations of Victims of Torture marked every year on the 26th of June. PHOTO: DAVID NJAAGA: 26/06/2014

Post-mortems on the eight robbery suspects who were shot by police last month indicate that they were shot while kneeling or lying on the ground.

The findings by anti-torture organisation, Independent Medico-Legal Unit (IMLU), contradict a statement by Makadara OCPD Nehemiah Lagat who said that his officers dramatically chased the young men before killing them in Mukuru kwa Reuben slums.

IMLU's Executive Director Peter Kiama (pictured) said that each of the victims sustained multiple gunshot wounds in the upper and lower back. In addition, two of the men had gunshot wounds in the back of their heads.

The post-mortem examinations, according to Mr Kiama, were conducted in the presence of victims' family pathologists on April 28, 2016.

"These findings also indicate that all were shot at close range and died immediately. These findings are a clear indication that indeed the deceased were summarily executed, contrary to earlier reports by the police that they shot eight armed gang members or that some were shot while fleeing," he said.

Mr Lagat had said that the eight were members of a gang that had been terrorising area residents. Four pistols, according to the OCPD, were recovered from the suspects. However, parents of the slain men disputed the claims.

A weeping Ann Njeri Musyoka, mother of William Mathenda Musyoka, defended her son against allegations that he was a thief. Njeri said her 20-year-old son made a living from  washing cars and collecting garbage.

The eight were accused of robbing and stabbing a man to death along Falcon Road before escaping into the expansive slum.

Njeri said that: "The police just killed my son. Why do you kill a person when there is jail where he can be placed after prosecution?"

Peris Kemunto, a single mother, lost her 26-year-old son in the same incident. She too disputed that her remaining child Albert Nyachai was a criminal.

"Serikali imeniulia mtoto aliyekuwa ndiye mwanamume kwa nyumba yangu (the Government killed my child, the man of the house," she said amid sobs.