Mystery of nine security officers killed without firing a shot

By Paul Gitau

Questions are mounting about the high toll among security forces as violence broke out again in the Tana Delta.

Reports indicate that none of the nine police officers slain on Monday was shot. “None of the bodies we saw bore gunshot wounds,” said an aid official, who inspected the bodies before the arrival of a police helicopter that took them away.

Four General Service Unit officers, four Administration Police officers, and one from the regular police were killed.

The official, who cannot be named for his own safety, said all the bodies bore machete, spear or knife injuries to the back of their heads or on top of the skull, suggesting the officers were attacked from behind.

This reporter saw one body with an open skull suggesting a heavy blow that cracked it on impact.

“The intention of the attackers was to kill or disable the officers as fast as possible and with a single blow,” said a distraught police officer who escaped the killing by playing dead but still lost his gun and received a spear wound in the stomach.

Police and intelligence officers are questioning how police could take such a high death toll from supposedly lightly armed raiders in broad daylight.

Further, there are questions about why the officers including the General Service Unit, Rapid Deployment Unit of the Administration Police and regular police were unable to kill or injure any of the attackers who not only slew officers, but also torched their vehicles and stole their guns.

Tuesday there were many theories trying to explain what appears to be grave mistakes by the 32 police officers who had been deployed at the Kilelengwani village to protect it following last month’s massacre.

No police official is willing to state what really happened or what mistakes were made but a police officer who was caught up in Monday’s mayhem confessed that one mistake the officers made was to underestimate the capacity of the enemy and most probably lowered their guard.

Unverified claims

There are unverified claims most officers did not have guns when they were attacked or that some of their guns did not have firing pins. “We did not believe that anybody could attack armed officers,” said an officer from the regular police department.

“Our guns jammed after some of us fired warning shots,” said another who could not, however, explain how all guns could jam at the same time.

This officer could also not recall whether police fired to deter or kill the raiders.

When The Standard visited the scene before the dead police officers’ bodies were taken away, our reporter discovered that two policemen were killed inside a classroom and three inside a truck, after being struck from behind. The truck was set ablaze.

A theory advanced by a senior police officer in Kilelengwani appears weak.

When The Standard sought to know whether the officers fought back, the policeman responded that the two officers who died in the classroom perished trying to defend women and children but it was still not clear whether the officers fired back at the attackers or injured any of them.

There were reports that several attackers were shot and injured or killed and carted away by colleagues, but this could not be confirmed.

Other theories suggested that the attackers lured the police officers to their deaths by pretending they were seeking their assistance against an attack only for the officers to be struck from behind.