Kin of missing men yet to find closure despite Sh5m award

Sarah Muyera returned home from Kilimani, Nairobi, where she worked as a house help and found her house in pitch darkness.

She was used to walking into the house, with her son’s favourite reggae music blasting from the speakers. Even though Erickson Aluda, 21, lived in an adjacent house, they spent their evenings together.

When she called him, his phone was off. His girlfriend Pauline Nyakerario said Aluda’s phone was off since midday. Muyera went to bed, but did not sleep a wink. She was tormented by thoughts of what could have happened to her son.

That was the beginning of a nightmare which last month ended with a judge’s ruling that Aluda disappeared without a trace in police custody.

On the eve of Madaraka Day, 2016, Muyera woke up at 4am, and using a flashlight that threw a feeble light on her path, knocked on many doors in Kawangware asking neighbours if they had seen Aluda.

“I walked from dawn till midnight. I felt something in my back snap but I did not stop. I went to houses, police stations, mortuaries, hospitals; and nobody knew where my son was,” she says.

While roaming in Kawangware market, she got a lead – one she says left her with many question – a mystery that nobody is yet to unravel, despite a court ruling last month that put police officers at the centre of Aluda’s disappearance.

Hermaton Idaki, commonly known as Guka, who worked at the market, told her policemen took the boys. Guka was found dead by the roadside three weeks later. Before he met his death, friends say he had expressed fears over his life. Someone called and warned him against speaking about the case. Police recorded his cause of death as carbon monoxide poisoning.

Government pathologist Peter Ndegwa testified in court saying police told him Guka died of epilepsy complications.

He had a different conclusion: Guka could have died inside a car boot. The mystery deepened. Where was Aluda and Brian Nzenze? Who killed the key witness Guka?

Leads narrowed to the police.

An eye witness told the court that on the day they disappeared, Aluda, a boda boda operator was seen riding past Kawangware market. Brian Nzenze, 17, was his pillion passenger. Three police officers accosted them as they rode towards the main road. They rained blows on them, and despite spirited resistance from Aluda and Nzenze, they bundled them inside a waiting Toyota Land Cruiser registration number GKA 875X.

Identified the policemen

The witness identified the policemen as Benson Simiyu, alias “Kichwa,” famed for being a no-nonsense cop in Kawangware. He was with Simon Mbau and Njoroge, alias Njoro.

Aluda’s mother says the officers were heard saying the boys were involved in the murder of a white man in Lavington, and were being taken for questioning.

Another policeman took over Aluda’s motorcycle and sped off.

That was the last time they saw the boys. Chilling details would later emerge in court, including altered records that claim Mbau returned a defaced AK 47 rifle slightly before 1pm on Madaraka Day and it was replaced with a Ceska pistol. The firearm records shows discrepancies of dates and time. Safaricom records place Mbau at Ngong Sports Club at the time he claimed he returned the rifle.

“There were so many things that did not make sense,” says Muyera.

Police denied any involvement in the boys’ disappearance.

Simiyu told the court that indeed he arrested two people, but identified them as Thomas Mauti and Caleb Akori. The two, he said, were involved in plumbing theft. He added that they also impounded two motorcycles, but the riders fled.

When Law Society of Kenya (LSK) asked police to produce raw CCTV footage from cameras in Kawangware to ascertain the identity of policemen who made the arrest, Francis Gachina, director of Integrated Command and Control Centre said they were deleted due to lack of storage space.

The quest for justice seemed elusive with every policeman who testified.

Eunice Kajairo, Nzenze’s mother breaks down when she talks about the futile search for her son. She was nursing her two week old child, when she heard a knock on her door.

Nzenze’s friend was the bearer of the news.

“He told me they have beaten him. He was bleeding when they put him in the police car,” she says.

The wait for her son’s return has left her anxious and in tears. Two years later, nobody knows where the boys went. The mothers kept asking: Who took our children?
Police did not have a response.

Muyera and Kajairo found themselves united by grief and pursuit for justice.

“We were poor women from the slum, desperately seeking justice and trying to ignore voices that told us nobody questions the police,” she says.

In April, the High Court ordered Inspector General of Police to pay Muyera and Kajairo Sh5 million each. The IG was also told to investigate and prosecute the people involved in the disappearance and death of the Kawangware boys.

Dumped the bodies

The court confirmed they had been arrested by three Administration Police officers, and mobile phone records placed the officers at the place where the two had been detained; yet no arrest has been made.

Muyera says she is disturbed.

“If they took my son as crowds watched; what would stop them from coming for me?” she asks.

Kajairo is stressed over the loose ends of the story. That policemen would grab the boys and accuse them of murder without divulging details is a puzzle she says she cannot wrap her head around. The big question, however, is where they dumped the bodies, if at all they killed the duo. Or if the boys were taken to a faraway place, will they return someday?

She lowers her voice when she weighs the possibilities.

“I think they killed them. Someone told me that when policemen kill, they dump the bodies in forests for hyenas to feast on,” she says.

Advocate Hannington Amol, who represented the women, says even though there was an order for investigations, they have not been told whether any arrest has been made.

“So far, nobody has told us if investigations have commenced or any arrests made,” the advocate said.