Murder police squad on the loose

Less than four months after he went into hiding, Bernard Kiriinya, who confessed that the police had adopted macabre killings in the war against the outlawed Mungiki sect, was traced and killed.

Thus, Kenya’s ability to protect whistle blowers is in question following the officer's shooting in October 16, 2008. The officer had been placed in a safe house by the Kenya National Commission on Human Rights after his confession.

Mr Kiriinya was 43-year-old when he died. He joined the force in March 1986. He was appointed a driver with the Special Crime Prevention Unit (SCPU) in 2005.

He had not been placed under the Witness Protection Act, which guarantees safety of whistle blowers and which came into effect on September 1, 2008. Mr Kiriinya’s hit squad has been blamed for the death of 500 youths.

In a recorded confession with the rights group, he says he witnessed 58 people being shot, strangled or bludgeoned to death by his colleagues.

On July 31, 2008, Mr Kiriinya volunteered the information to the government’s human rights body, following cries by relatives of victims and hoped the law would protect him. His confession contained in DVD, had remained a secret until it was released by the commission on Tuesday.

Until then, the family of Rift Valley Mungiki co-ordinator Kimani Ruo did not know what happened to him but accused police of being the last to have been seen with him.

According to Mr Kiriinya, Mr Ruo was accosted at Nairobi law courts and escorted across the street on foot. He was picked up by unmarked police car outside the International Life House. “We were told to effect the arrest secretly and ensure nobody got to know about it,” said Mr Kiriinya.

Mr Ruo disappeared after the court cleared him of charges he had been accused of jointly with jailed Mungiki leader Maina Njenga. Mr Njenga’s wife, Virginia Nyakio, whose body was found on April 11, was killed by police officers who also took Sh5 million she was carrying, according to Mr Kiriinya.

Her driver

It was found alongside the body of her driver, Mr George Njoroge, at Gakoe forest in Gatundu, central Kenya. At the height of the anti-Mungiki operation, police officers who were not part of the killer squad but who learnt of their activities, were not spared. An officer identified by Mr Kiriinya as Kyalo was shot dead together with Mungiki suspects.

“The officer had hiked a lift in our vehicle to Murang’a after he was transferred from Lang’ata. I suspect he was intentionally shot dead to silence him. Remember he was not part of the team,” according to Mr Kiriinya’s confession. The execution team, he further revealed, comprised 14 core officers who were at times reinforced by colleagues from other units.

Officers attached to hit squad were drawn from the Special Crime Prevention Unit (SCPU), the Nairobi area and CID headquarters. Mr Kiriinya’s confession reveals how senior officers ordered who to be killed and how it should be done.

Bodies of those shot would be transported by the officers secretly and paraded alongside guns to give an impression they were killed in exchange of fire. Most of the suspects were found without guns and so official police firearms had to be planted on them.

Their bodies would be dumped in rivers, by the roadside, in forests as well as farms to create the impression they were murdered by rival Mungiki gangs. The seniors co-ordinated the macabre killings through cell phones.

Senior officers also demanded to hear over the phone as their juniors interrogated suspects, before pronouncing “death sentences.” Hours before Mr Kiriinya was shot, a close friend and colleague had visited him at the safe house he had been moved to at the commission’s expense.

The visitor

His wife, who overheard the conversation, reported that the visitor had requested they meet later at Nairobi's Sarit Centre. Mr Kiriinya had obliged.

He was shot as he walked back to the house after meeting the officer. His mobile phones were taken away. Two hit men, as witnesses reported, took off on foot. They sped off in a get-away car that had been waiting almost a kilometre away.

Mr Kiriinya’s confession, according to KNCHR, was corroborated by three other officers. Their identity remains a secret, guarded by the commission in fear they too, could be eliminated.

KNCHR regards people who volunteer crucial information as whistleblowers and shelters them, together with their families, in safe houses.

The Attorney General’s office is yet to roll out a programme to offer safety for key witnesses, even after the Government set aside Sh20 million for the programme in this year’s budget.