Mystery of six bodies found in Nairobi's Kware slum near police station
What you need to know:
- Witnesses said all the bodies had the same degree of decomposition.
- All the bodies had been wrapped in black polythene, tied with nylon ropes and stashed in gunny bags.
The hacked bodies of six women, wrapped in the same way, were discovered in a Nairobi estate on Friday, July 12, sparking shock and outrage among Kenyans who demanded an urgent investigation.
While the police put the number at six, members of human rights groups who witnessed the retrieval of the bodies at a quarry in Kware area in Embakasi put the figure at eight.
Witnesses told the Saturday Nation that all the bodies had the same degree of decomposition, one to two weeks, but this is yet to be confirmed through post-mortem examination. All the bodies had been wrapped in black polythene, tied with nylon ropes and stashed in gunny bags.
Hundreds of locals at Kware area of Nairobi's Pipeline after dead bodies were discovered dumped on July 12, 2024.
Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) boss Mohamed Amin said that as of 6pm yesterday, six bodies had been retrieved “in various stages of decomposition”.
“Preliminary investigations suggest a similar mode of killing for the deceased. The bodies have been transported to the City Mortuary, where they await post-mortem examinations,” Mr Amin said in a statement. He added that homicide detectives and officers from the forensics division are currently analysing samples to identify the bodies
The Kenya Human Rights Commission (KHRC) put the number of bodies retrieved at eight.
“Eight bodies had been recovered—six in the morning and two in the afternoon. KHRC is urging a comprehensive investigation to determine the cause of death and identify those responsible. The perpetrators must be held accountable,” it said.
Mukuru Community Justice Centre, a local civil society organisation at the centre of the retrievals, described the scene as horrific. “Other bodies are in sacks chopped into pieces,” it said.
Volunteers retrieve a human body wrapped in a bag in the Kware area of Pipeline Nairobi on July 212, 024.
Law Society of Kenya president Faith Odhiambo demanded action and a probe to uncover what happened. “We need investigations to be done! This is unacceptable,” she said.
Activist Boniface Mwangi protested the absence of a missing persons registry, and how this impedes identification of patterns in crime. “Because of the pure laziness, greed and corruption of the National Police Service, we don’t have a missing persons national registry, occurrence books are still analogue and not connected to other stations. Analogue systems mean police miss crime patterns,” he wrote on X.
Last evening, the Director of Public Prosecutions directed the Inspector-General of Police to expeditiously carry out thorough investigations into the matter.
In a press briefing by Ms Jacinta Nyamosi, the Deputy Director, Human and Civil Rights Division at the DPP’s office, the DPP also called on the Kenya National Commission on Human Rights and Independent Police Oversight Authority to expedite investigations into the use of excessive force by the police during the recent protests.
As Kenyans demanded action, questions are being asked about not just the similarity in how the victims were killed, but also how the police, with a police station barely one kilometre away, never knew about the dumping of the bodies.
“I saw decomposed bodies being retrieved from the water. This is sad when we have the police in close proximity. Then they come to collect the bodies armed to teeth, with guns, rungus and handcuffs. The question is, where were they when these people were being killed and dumped here?” asked a man who identified himself as Omwani as he led the youth in the body retrieval exercise.
A volunteer helps recover a human body in a bag dumped in the Kware area of Pipeline Nairobi on July 12, 2024.
Kennedy Agutha Omollo, the community chairman in Kware area, demanded swift action.
“This is an exceptional case. Up to eight bodies being retrieved at the same time is not normal and they are not people from this area,” Mr Omollo demanded.
Mr Omollo explained that the bodies were discovered after a woman who had visited the area in search of the body of her missing “saw something like a body wrapped in a gunny bag. She hired a young man who got inside the excavation and found that it was actually a body”.
