Military returns to operation base, but questions arise over their mission

• Villagers fear the soldiers are back in the Mt Elgon area to cover up evidence of killings.
• Security sources said accusations should be levelled at individuals.
• On this July 31, herders stumbled on decomposing body parts, including five skulls.
• Area provincial administration said it was unaware of the bodies but suspect they were dumped there by the SLDF.

Security personnel have returned to an area in Mt Elgon littered with bodies of people thought to have been arrested in the military operation against the murderous Sabaot Land Defense Force (SLDF).

The military left Kamarang’ Hill Forest in the heart of Mt Elgon on July 30, 2008, a day before herders stumbled on decomposing body parts, including five skulls.

The open field was used by the soldiers as a launch-pad against the SLDF.

Residents at Kapkota, the main base for the joint military-police Operation Okoa Maisha said the soldiers returned to Kamarang’ last Thursday ostensibly to mop up any evidence that could link them to the deaths of suspects arrested during the operation.

When contacted, the operation’s command promised to carry out inquests into the deaths if families and relatives make formal complaints to police.

“If the allegations are true, we will open inquest files,” said media liaison officer, Charles Owino Wahong’o. “Let’s handle this maturely without causing any unnecessary conflict.”

But security sources said accusations should be levelled at individuals.

“The days for blanket condemnation against the police and defence are gone. Action will be taken against anybody who committed an offence.”

The discovery is likely to add a new dimension to an operation largely seen as effective in uprooting a militia whose brutality claimed 700 lives and displaced half the district’s 160,000 people in just 18 months since August 2006.

Mt Elgon is more secure, residents agree. But human rights groups, among them the state-funded Kenya National Commission on Human Rights, say security has come at a huge cost. They accuse the military of arbitrarily killing suspects during interrogation, claims police dismiss.

The military returned to the area on Thursday, an hour after this writer contacted Police Headquarters in Nairobi and the area Provincial Administration.

This writer had visited the area last week and seen decomposing bodies, some concealed by residents who feared security personnel could destroy them to cover up evidence.

“This is our blood, we cannot let his body be destroyed. We have to bury him lest a curse befalls the community,” said a woman who refused to reveal the identity of a dead man for fear of the military.

“It will be prudent to the families who have identified bodies of relatives to make formal reports to police so that forensic tests can be done,” said Mr Wahong’o.

The military camp at Meza was closed when the Government scaled down its presence in Mt Elgon after the SLDF had been routed.

There were several other camps, but the the main one was at Kapkota, less than a kilometre from Toroso High, where slain militia leader Wycliffe Komon Matekwei went to school in 1999.

“The military has been combing the area since yesterday,” said Kroida Bajune, a lawyer for a family searching for four of its members who surrendered to the military at Kapkota but have disappeared.

The family of 55-year old patriarch Sospeter Chebkwesi Cherop went to court to seek his release, together with that of his three cousins. Last week, herders stumbled on bodies that had clothes similar to those the four had been wearing.