Police briefly fired tear gas and rubber bullets to disperse an angry crowd surrounding a police station near the site of the grisly discovery in Mukuru, a slum in the south of the capital. (Photo by SIMON MAINA / AFP)
By Tanya WILLMER
NAIROBI, July 14, 2024 (AFP) – Eight female bodies have been recovered so far from a dumpsite in a Nairobi slum, Kenyan police said Sunday, adding that they were pursuing possible links to cults, serial killers or rogue medical practitioners.
The gruesome discoveries of mutilated and dismembered bodies dumped in plastic bags in a rubbish tip in Mukuru in the south of the Kenyan capital have horrified and angered the nation.
Kenya’s acting national police chief Douglas Kanja said the first six corpses were found on Friday and more body parts were retrieved on Saturday, with preliminary investigations revealing that all were female.
“They were severely dismembered in different states of decomposition and left in sacks,” Kanja told a press conference, adding that investigations were ongoing.
Kanja also called for public cooperation in “so that we bring the perpetrators of these heinous acts to book”.
Amin Mohammed, the head of the Directorate of Criminal Investigations, said the ages of the victims ranged between about 18 to 30 and that all had been killed and butchered in the same manner.
He said police were looking into a number of hypotheses.
“Are we dealing with a cult that is associated with criminal activities, are we dealing with serial killers,” he said at the press briefing alongside Kanja.
“We even could be dealing with rogue medical practitioners (involved in) criminal activities.”
Kenya was left reeling last year by the discovery of mass graves in a forest near the Indian Ocean coast containing the bodies of more than 400 members of a doomsday sect, one of the world’s worst cult-related massacres.
On Monday, self-proclaimed pastor Paul Nthenge Mackenzie went on trial on terrorism charges along with 94 co-defendants over the deaths, accused of inciting his followers to starve themselves to death in order to meet Jesus.
He and the other accused also face charges of murder, manslaughter and child cruelty in separate cases over what has been dubbed the “Shakahola forest massacre”.
Kanja said the police were committed to conducting “transparent, thorough and swift investigations” into the Mukuru dumped bodies, adding that officers from the police station near the site had been transferred.
Police briefly fired tear gas and rubber bullets to disperse an angry crowd surrounding a police station near the site of the grisly discovery in Mukuru, a slum in the south of the capital. (Photo by SIMON MAINA / AFP)
– ‘Torture and mutilation’ –
Kenya’s police watchdog, the Independent Police Oversight Authority (IPOA), had said on Friday it was investigating whether there was any police involvement in the grisly saga.
“The bodies, wrapped in bags and secured by nylon ropes, had visible marks of torture and mutilation,” it said, noting that the dumpsite was less than 100 metres (yards) from a police station.
The IPOA also said it was looking into claims of abductions of demonstrators who went missing after widespread anti-government protests last month degenerated into deadly mayhem.
But it did not make any link to those missing and the dumped bodies.
The country’s law enforcement services are under heavy scrutiny after dozens of people were killed in the demonstrations, with rights groups accusing officers of using excessive force.
Kanja took up his post only this week after the resignation of national police chief Japhet Koome in the wake of public fury over the protest deaths.
A total of 39 people were killed and more than 630 injured during the unrest, Kenya’s national rights commission said earlier this month.
