Police beat people, destroy property in operation to recover stolen guns

Mumias residents at Shibale in Mumias Kakamega County mill at a scene where a spare part shop belongoing to Stanley Namai burnt down in the skirmishes following a police raid at their homes on the night on Nov 23rd, 2016 in search of lost guns and suspects involved in the yesterday raid at the Booker Police Post yesterday. The police have been reported to have used excessive force during the exercise where rape, theft, and intimidation was allegedly used. Those who were injured by police are recuperating at Matungu and St. Merry's Hospital in Mumias. [Photo:Chrispen Sechere/Standard].

Security officers have been accused of attacking residents and destroying property in an operation to recover guns thugs stole from a police post in Mumias on Tuesday.

The operation to recover seven G3 rifles and 140 bullets were stolen when unknown people raided Booker Police Post in an attack that left one officer seriously injured.

The residents claim the officers beat them up in the raid early yesterday during which they reportedly set property, including buildings, on fire and raped women.

Others said the contingent of regular and Administration Police officers and their GSU counterparts sexually assaulted women and stole money from some of the residents.

The raid which targeted Mumias East, Mumias West and Matungu constituencies has left in its wake razed down businesses, raped women, traumatised children and several people limping after they were attacked.

Roadblocks were erected in Ekero, Mayoni, and Lukoye, where according to Western Regional Commandant Mongo Chimwaga, the operation would focus.

And no one was spared during the operation. A journalist with a local daily was forced into a raw sewerage as he escaped the mean-looking officers while a pastor was forced to flee a burial service he was supposed to preside over.

"Some of the officers told us to pray President Uhuru Kenyatta, who is visiting this region does not order another operation otherwise, we would face more fire," said Mr Mohamed Shikuku of Shibale slums where tens of houses were allegedly broken into by security officers.

Mumias East MP John Naicca and former ODM national youth leader Rashid Mohammed termed the operation as "barbaric and vindictive."

It was a major nightmare particularly for Shibale and Mayoni slum dwellers and villages in Makale in Matungu Constituency where the phone belonging to Mr Ezekiel Juma, the officer who was injured in the attack, was traced to.

Several officers were ferried in lorries from Akichelesit Camp in Teso to reinforce the operation.

"They told my mother to tell them where the guns are. When she couldn't answer, they demanded money. She gave them the Sh2,400 she had but they did not leave. They told her she looked like someone who has money but has only decided to give them too little. They beat her up and she is now admitted to Matungu sub-county hospital," said Mercy Adhiambo, a resident of Shibale.

The 20-year-old Adhiambo claimed the officers wanted to rape her but spared her because of her young child.

"The officers who were walking in groups of three arrived at our house at 3am. They said they will return to rape me because I am beautiful. Indeed they came back at 4.30am but I clung to my child. They still went ahead to prod my private parts before beating my mother up," said Adhiambo.

A nursing officer at Matungu hospital, Joan Khamala, said they attended to five people with various forms of injuries. "Most of them had soft tissue injuries even though there are those with severe injuries," she said.

Among those treated and discharged were Elizabeth Makokha and Florence Obare while one man is fighting for his life after he was senselessly beaten. Obare who we met at the hospital has swollen legs and injuries on her back and hips.

At St Mary's Hospital in Mumias West, The Standard team found 36-year-old Stanley Namayi, a businessman in Shibale, who suffered severe burns. He said officers knocked at his door and when he declined to open thinking it was thieves, they set it ablaze.

The hospital's administrator Michael Mugo said Namayi will be referred elsewhere for specialised treatment. Mr Shaban Makokha, of The Star newspaper, hid in a culvert with raw sewage to avoid being beaten.