Did police torture on Tana mission?

By Jeckonia Otieno

‘Welcome to Ozi village, the latest of Kenya’s ruins; the ramifications of the country’s own security operations.’  This is the message any person visiting this burnt-out ghost settlement would get.

Ozi that used to bubble with life is now in the state of destitution and many theories, laden with accusations and counter-accusations have so far been propagated of how the village turned into rubble overnight.

According to locals, the village that is a home to over 8,000 people was burnt down by police officers who were deployed in the Tana Delta to quell the violence that left more than 100 people dead.

 The narrative given by the security forces, but which locals vehemently dispute, is that when they arrived in the village, people who were fleeing the area, decided to burn down the houses.

But with all these, one sure thing is that Ozi village is deserted and those who stayed there are now living in the nearby forests. So fearful they are that they would disappear into the wild on seeing any approaching vehicle.

Every vehicle is suspected to be police officers, reminding them of two recent invasions by the security teams that left them traumatised.

Broken pieces of household goods and burnt-out embers of what used to be the roofs of their houses are the hallmarks of the village.

Ghost of a village

In fact, the only thing that remains functional is the borehole, which seemingly escaped unscathed in the destruction spree.

After days of media blackout on Ozi, the Standard on Sunday managed to get to the village to find out the real situation on the ground and how the villagers are coping up with it.

From a ghost of what was once a communal village, the search for the villagers went upstream, but not a single villager could be seen.

A short distance away, a team of Coalition on Violence Against Women (COVAW), Women Empowerment Link and Duma Group tries to reach these people along the Tana River banks, but there is no sign of life, despite there being a pot boiling on the fire by the roughly built hut.

One of our guides calls out in the Pokomo language and two young men appear and inform us that when people heard the sound of a roaring boat in the river, they thought the security officers were back so all of them went scampering for safety.

“We have to go tell others that you are not here with the police so that they can come out and say what we have gone through,” the young man told Standard on Sunday.

We take a path that leads us through the forested area beside the river and we slide every inch of the way after rain heavily pounded the region the previous night.

We then come across the first temporary shelter where we meet two sick villagers, Bergoni Hoka and Mwanajuma Saidi.

Hoka is cared for by Saidi Adhero and his wife Miriam Adhero, while the 25-year-old Saidi is recuperating alone.

Adhero and other villagers have been displaced and have been living in the forest.

Every time there is any sign of the police vehicle approaching, he carries Hoka while his wife lumbers with Mwanajuma into hiding.

He questions as he thatches the roof of the temporary structure, which he has to share with his grandchildren thus: why is Government silent about their predicament?

“Why has the Government turned against us and decided to destroy our lives and livelihoods? Is it its wish to create even more poverty and kill us through starvation?” he poses.

Not far away is another group. We meet Mwanajuma Mkaraji, Mwanaharusi Salim and Mwanaharusi Juma who all allege to have been assaulted by the security officers.

Mkaraji shows the marks on her back, a clear testimony to flogging while the other two women explain how the officers assaulted them.

Mkaraji massages the dried wounds on her back and says: “They told me to remove all my clothes before flogging me in front of my children. They left me with these injuries.”

By this time more villagers have arrived to receive the tents presented by Duma’s health director, Dr Abdulaziz Dhulikifl who notes that it is not right that people should live in fear of their own Government.

Dislocated knee

“The Government exists to protect its citizens not molest them as we have seen here. We are, therefore, asking the commission to ensure that it comes here to get views of these citizens because it would be difficult to get to the bottom without these people being heard,” says Dhulikifl.

He adds: “It is wrong to see people who are ready to work to feed themselves depend on handouts simply because they fear the Government.”

About half a kilometre away in the same forest is 60-year-old Salim Gutu who cannot walk. A younger brother cares for him as he lies on a mat by the door. Gutu’s knee was dislocated in the police fracas, yet he has not received any medical service. He claims that the officers found him and his wife in their farm and set on them.

However, when contacted, Coast Provincial Police Officer Aggrey Adoli said claims by the locals were to divert attention of the people and interfere with the disarmament exercise.

He urged the people living here to produce the firearms to the police, saying disarmament exercise would never be soft.

“Disarmament is not something soft. It has to be forceful. They should produce the firearms they used in killing each other,” he said.

COVAW Executive Director, Saida Ali, states that Kenya being a signatory to many international conventions on human rights should not allow such a thing to happen to its people.

“We appreciate the fact that the Government has moved to restore peace in the Tana Delta, but it cannot do so by violating the rights and using violence on the very same people who need peace. The use of excessive force and torture must stop so that dialogue is given a chance,” Ali remarks.

He suggests to the team that has been set up to investigate the cause of the clashes in the area should ensure it first builds a rapport with the locals.