Protestors burn container at Syokimau AP camp over killings

Demonstrators set ablaze a container at the Syokimau Administration Police camp where slain lawyer Willie Kimani and two others were detained before they were brutally killed and their bodies dumped in a river.

The detectives investigating the murder of the three had cordoned off the containers at the AP camp and marked them as a crime scene.

The demonstrators, most of them boda boda operators, converged at the Mavoko Law Courts on Wednesday the morning where Machakos LSK chairman Andrew Makundi had gone to submit a petition.

After Mr Makundi left, the demonstrators headed to the AP camp where they set the container on fire as police officers watched.

Efforts by Mavoko MP Patrick Makau to stop the demonstrators from burning the post were futile.

Mr Makau was accompanied by the Kathiani MP Benard Mbui and his colleague in the East Africa Legislative Assembly Peter Mathuki.

Athi River deputy county commissioner Geoffrey Omoding’ who condemned the actions of the demonstrators said those who participated in the burning of the post would be arrested.

The bodies of the three, Mr Kimani, his client Josephat Mwenda and their taxi driver, Joseph Muiruri were retrieved from Ol Donyo Sabuk River in Machakos County on July 1, a week after they disappeared.

“This is a major setback in the investigations into the death of the three people,” he said, adding that the offices had documents and other materials that could have helped detectives in their investigation.

National Police Service Spokesperson George Kinoti said the AP post’s container offices had been secured and were to be subjected to further forensic examinations.

“Burning the post which was already marked as a ‘scene of crime’ and also an exhibit was very wrong. It tampers with the investigation,” said Mr Kinoti.

He said the police were investigating the circumstances under which the station was burnt, saying detectives will still use the available materials in their probe.

The three deceased were alleged to have been detained in one of the containers serving as a makeshift cell, minutes after they were abducted from the Mavoko Law Courts’ entrance, where Mr Kimani was representing Mr Mwenda in a case involving a police officer attached to the Syokimau post.

The late Kimani, according to detectives, wrote a note on a piece of tissue paper and threw it to a boda boda rider who was passing by.

In the note, he wrote his wife’s contact and asked the passer-by to inform her that he was in danger

Post-mortem reports indicated that the three people were tortured before they were killed and their bodies thrown into a river.

Four police officers suspected to have murdered the three have been arrested and are in police custody.

The court allowed police officers investigating the matter, to detain the officers for fourteen days.

Following the news of the lawyer’s disappearance and subsequent discovery of the three bodies, Kenyans, human rights activists and lawyers were outraged leading to street protests and calls for resignation of top police bosses.

(Editing by Joel Muinde)