Victims urge international court to probe Kenya abductions

Dancan Kyalo (centre), brother to Justus Mutumwa, addresses the media outside City Mortuary, Nairobi yesterday. He is flanked by LSK President Faith Odhiambo (left) and Makueni Senator Dan Maanzo (right).[Collins Kweyu, Standard] Victims and their family members caught up in a wave of kidnappings and extrajudicial killings in Kenya have called on the International Criminal Court to investigate, the country's human rights commission told AFP Monday. Fury has been growing in the East African country over dozens of unsolved cases of people being kidnapped -- and sometimes tortured or killed -- since anti-government protests in June last year were repressed. "We are calling for the International Criminal Court (ICC) to intervene... because the Kenya security justice system has failed," said Ernest Cornel of the Kenya Human Rights Commission. "It is police who are accused of conducting the forced disappearances, conducting extrajudicial killings," he told AFP. "It can't be that the same security officers who are accused of this crime can then come and start investigating them." His organisation has recorded more than 60 extrajudicial killings and 89 abduction cases since the June protests, with 29 people still missing. Bob Njagi and Aslam Longton told a press conference on Sunday that they were tortured by security agents after being abducted in August -- and have been living in fear since their release in September. The pair spoke out to "protect other Kenyans at risk of experiencing the same horrors", they said in a statement. On Friday, the bodies of two missing young men thought to have been kidnapped, Justus Mutumwa and Martin Mwau, turned up in a morgue in the capital Nairobi. The discovery of the bodies came just hours after national police chief Douglas Kanja told a court that he did not know where the young men were. Dancan Kyalo said his brother Mutumwa's body showed signs of torture, including marks on his wrists suggesting he had been tied up. "His forehead had deep cuts, his eyes had been pierced," Kyalo said. Kenya's public service minister Justin Muturi has revealed he had to call President William Ruto in June to secure the release of his own kidnapped son. "This is a deliberate, state-orchestrated campaign of terror," the Kenya Human Rights Commission said. In 2010, the Hague-based ICC began investigating violence following 2007 elections which left more than 1,100 people dead. Six people, including Ruto, were prosecuted for crimes against humanity including murder. However, the prosecutions were eventually dropped due to a lack of evidence, with a former chief prosecutor blaming a relentless campaign of witness intimidation. Victims and their family members caught up in a wave of kidnappings and extrajudicial killings in Kenya have called on the International Criminal Court to investigate, the country's human rights commission told AFP Monday. Fury has been growing in the East African country over dozens of unsolved cases of people being kidnapped -- and sometimes tortured or killed -- since anti-government protests in June last year were repressed. "We are calling for the International Criminal Court (ICC) to intervene... because the Kenya security justice system has failed," said Ernest Cornel of the Kenya Human Rights Commission. "It is police who are accused of conducting the forced disappearances, conducting extrajudicial killings," he told AFP. "It can't be that the same security officers who are accused of this crime can then come and start investigating them." His organisation has recorded more than 60 extrajudicial killings and 89 abduction cases since the June protests, with 29 people still missing. Bob Njagi and Aslam Longton told a press conference on Sunday that they were tortured by security agents after being abducted in August -- and have been living in fear since their release in September. The pair spoke out to "protect other Kenyans at risk of experiencing the same horrors", they said in a statement. On Friday, the bodies of two missing young men thought to have been kidnapped, Justus Mutumwa and Martin Mwau, turned up in a morgue in the capital Nairobi. The discovery of the bodies came just hours after national police chief Douglas Kanja told a court that he did not know where the young men were. Dancan Kyalo said his brother Mutumwa's body showed signs of torture, including marks on his wrists suggesting he had been tied up. "His forehead had deep cuts, his eyes had been pierced," Kyalo said. Kenya's public service minister Justin Muturi has revealed he had to call President William Ruto in June to secure the release of his own kidnapped son. "This is a deliberate, state-orchestrated campaign of terror," the Kenya Human Rights Commission said. In 2010, the Hague-based ICC began investigating violence following 2007 elections which left more than 1,100 people dead. Six people, including Ruto, were prosecuted for crimes against humanity including murder. However, the prosecutions were eventually dropped due to a lack of evidence, with a former chief prosecutor blaming a relentless campaign of witness intimidation.

Victims urge international court to probe Kenya abductions

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