Another man tells of torture by GSU

When he set out on his routine mission of looking after cattle, Joseph Kakuko never knew the day would turn out to be the most horrific in his life.

Kakuko says he was looking after the cattle at Ding Dinga Village on the border of Trans Nzoia and West Pokot counties when he saw a GSU vehicle park by the road.

The policemen got out of it and began advancing towards him. To him, they were on their normal surveillance mission.

Grabbed and dragged

But when they reached him, they grabbed and dragged him on the ground to where their vehicle had been parked without telling him what his crime was.

“They beat me for some time as I lay on the ground before they ordered me to jump into the vehicle,” he told the Nation.

Once inside, they ordered him to lie under one of the benches while facing sideways.

The 18-year-old recalls how the officers stepped on him while one of them beat him with a gun butt, leaving behind a large wound on his chest.

Lifting up his shirt, he displays a scar from the wound which will forever remind him of the inhuman act.

When they reached Kirita GSU Camp, the third born in a family of seven says he was taken to a secluded room where he was greeted with all kinds of beatings from the officers in the room.

“Beatings came from all directions with some slapping me while others kicked me until I lay helplessly on the ground,” said Kakuko.

While wailing, Kakuko spat on the floor of the fateful room, a thing he says upset the officer even further, ordering him to lick all the dust in the room.

“I can’t recall the amount of dust I licked while at the same time getting slaps from the soldiers,” he says.

One of the officers tied his genitals with a bladder in bid to castrate him, making him wail loudly and bitterly.

That was when a second GSU vehicle came into the compound, prompting the officers to halt the beatings as they led in more officers into the room.

Like an animal waiting to be slaughtered, the man says he knew hell was about to break loose as the people beating him up just received reinforcement.

One of the officers who came in asked him why he was at the camp,. He resp0nded, pleading that he knew not why he was there at all.

Looking after cattle

He says: “I told him the officers found me looking after cattle and forcefully dragged me without telling me why”.

The officer asked him if he could locate his way home if set free, and he answered in the affirmative.

“He then ordered me to rush out of the camp which I did hurriedly,” he adds.

To his surprise some officers followed him while he ran, with some kicking him from the back, causing him to stumble before he finally found his way out.

He ran up to Keesi Primary School where he met a group of people who were conversing in low tones. He asked for water to quench his thirst.

The next thing he remembers is that he found himself lying on a dispensary bed at Centre Kwanza Dispensary.

He was nursed for one week but up to date, he suffers head and chest pains as a result of the beating.

He says the most hurting bit was when he developed a penile dysfunction, resulting with his wife running away as he could not fulfil his conjugal duties.

“I married in February, 2012, but my wife escaped because I could not perform my conjugal duties,” he says.

His mother Eunice Ripoo says she was worried by the unusual lateness of her son on the fateful day.

“We were so worried when an anonymous caller told us our son had died after succumbing to GSU beatings,” recalls the mother.

Kakuko is appealing to the government to make sure the officers are brought to justice. In addition he wants to be compensated for injuries he sustained.

“The government should compensate me and the officers should be arraigned in court as I am ready to identify them,“ says the boy.

The boy is just one of many residents in the region who claim they have fallen prey to the GSU beatings under the pretext of being cattle rustlers.