Police hitmen instil fear in city slums

The late Ali Marjan. His cousin, Malasin Abdul, says he had reformed and was supposed to travel to Dubai two days before he disappeared. PHOTO | NATION MEDIA GROUP

What you need to know:

  • Joseph Odongo, a local activist, has placed the number of those killed in the last one month at 15, saying at least three young men are shot every week.
  • Although elder Ahmed lost his son to the lawlessness of the slums, the recent killings have baffled him too, saying he has never seen anything like this for the last 62 years he has lived in Kibera.

The scramble to get into the bus headed to Livingstone Khaemba’s rural home in Kakamega created a stampede near the DC’s grounds in Kibera on Thursday morning.

It had already been filled to capacity but there were at least four or five times the number of people that had secured a place in the buses who also wanted to be part of the 22-year-old’s final journey.

His father had not found a seat yet and was pleading with those present to let him get to the door while his mother, overcome with grief, had fainted.

Metres away, three Administration Police officers manning the County Commissioner’s office watched the drama in silence from behind a metallic gate with G3 rifles in hand as his coffin was tied on the luggage rack of the bus.

“He was a good man, you won’t kill all of us,” a woman shouted at them; and, as if on cue, the wails from women in the crowd went a notch higher.

His father, Oscar Serete, told the Sunday Nation it took them close to one month to raise the money required for the journey but what worried him more was how Evra – as he was known among his friends and family – met his death at the hands of the police on September 10.

“He came to our house at 10 pm riding a borrowed motorcycle and told us he had just taken his friend, who had fallen sick, to Makina clinic,” he said.

“It happened that we had run short of money and I thought that since he had a motorcycle I could send him to get Sh200 from his uncle in Kambi Muru,” he recalled.

A few minutes later shots rang nearby and, as normally happens whenever shots are fired, the residents go to find out who has been shot.

This time, for Mr Serete, it was his son who was on the ground bleeding to death.

“They (police) stopped us and pulled him from the motorcycle, one of them slapped me and told me to go away unless I wanted to see Evra being killed ... then I heard three shots,” said his friend, who has since gone into hiding.

While it is debatable as to whether the defender of Maren FC, a local football club, was indeed a criminal, it is the controversial circumstances in which he was killed and a string of similar police shootings in Kibera that have raised fear in the sprawling informal settlement.

Scores of youths say they have been forced to relocate or avoid sleeping in their houses as trigger-happy police officers armed with smartphones loaded with pictures of suspected criminals hunt and shoot them on sight and without provocation.

These revelations are part of an investigation by the Nation Newsplex team which found that dozens of Kenyans have died at the hands of policemen in the last two years.

SHOT DEAD

Joseph Odongo, a local activist, has placed the number of those killed in the last one month at 15, saying at least three young men are shot every week.

“Just walk around. The streets are empty and boys can no longer sit anywhere and chat because when ‘Blackman’ sees you, the first thing he does is to get out his phone and see if you are on the database, then his pistol,” he said.

“While I condemn the youth who join crime, the police, too, do not have a right to be the judge because here they have become the law,” he said.

“Blackman” is a nickname given to one of the officers the group alleges to be behind the killings.

Like most of the young men in the slums who are better known by their monikers, the police too – especially the most ruthless – have been given nicknames based on their characteristics.

Blackman has a dark complexion, Mcoasti comes from the Coast, Bolt runs fast and his other name is Hussein while Macho Mbaya has a squint in his eyes.

It is these four who are alleged to have created animosity between the community and the police which boiled over to a protest on Tuesday afternoon.

A similar protest was staged on Friday in Tiwi location in Kwale County where residents demanded immediate arrest of a police officer who shot dead a Tuk Tuk driver, apparently “accidentally”, on Thursday evening.

They eventually calmed down upon intervention by Matuga MP Hassan Mwanyoha.

Addressing the residents, Mr Mwanyoha said it was wrong for the police officer to shoot at the innocent Tuk Tuk driver who was on his normal work operation.

“It was uncalled-for for the police officer to shoot at an innocent man who was on his daily hustle to look for money to support his family, may that officer be cursed,” he said.

Tsuma Mumbo, 25, succumbed to gunshot injuries after he was hit by a bullet in the head which was fired by the police officer said to have been pursuing drug peddlers and users who were on the run.

In Kibera, the protests were sparked by the killing of Jamal Ochieng (Sisqo), a tout, last Sunday night as he left Sky Villa club in Ayany where he had gone to watch Benga artist Dola Kabary perform.

His wife Akinyi Odera, who is two months’ pregnant, was with him when he was shot.

“In January, he told me that one officer had accosted him and told him ‘before you kill me, I will kill you first,"' she said.

“I didn’t believe it until he fell down beside me after I heard five shots. I can still hear them in my mind,” she said.

STRANGE MURDERS

An initial report by the Independent Medico Legal Unit (IMLU), which has since taken over the case, says Ochieng was shot 12 times with two of the bullets fired at close range in the back of the neck.

An officer from the unit who is handling the case told the Sunday Nation of an attempt to tamper with the evidence of the circumstances of the killing by the police.

“Photos taken from the scene by the police show the deceased was wearing full police uniform, handcuffs, teargas canisters on the waist and a swagger cane but from our inquiries at the scene, we know he was in a white Gor Mahia jersey,” said the officer.

This evidence is corroborated by his wife who told the Sunday Nation that they had gone to watch Gor Mahia play against Sofapaka at the Nyayo stadium before going to the club.

Six days before Jamal was killed, it is alleged that police tracked down Bernard Otieno (Bobo) and Hillary Owino (Chinjo), pulled them out of Otieno’s house in Kambi Muru in the middle of the night, handcuffed them before shooting them.

Both were players at Uweza Football Club and Otieno’s girlfriend, Shamin Sheila, insists they were not criminals.

“Bobo used to talk a lot. I had heard that they were thieves but I had never seen them steal and, as his girlfriend, I would have known,” says Ms Shamin whose previous boyfriend and father of her child was also felled by police bullets in 2010.

On the night of September 2, police gunned down a 16-year-old boy we have only identified as Valentine (Vale) just a few minutes after a group of three he was part of stabbed Ahmed Ibrahim in Lindi 13 times, due what the deceased’s father told the Sunday Nation was an argument over a girl.

“They knew each other because Ibrahim was in the house here, then he heard the girl shout outside and went to enquire what was happening and an argument started, then two minutes later someone came to tell me he had been stabbed,” he says.

“And as we were arranging to take him to hospital, we heard four shots close by and on the ground was a very young boy I was told was part of the gang that stabbed him.

Although elder Ahmed lost his son to the lawlessness of the slums, the recent killings have baffled him too, saying he has never seen anything like this for the last 62 years he has lived in Kibera.

“Even if you know someone is a thief, you should arrest them and question them. That is the only way to fight crime,” he says.

“What is happening has fuelled a rise in a network of informers where, if you feel threatened or you fall out with anyone, you take a picture of them and send it on WhatsApp to the police. A lot of young men are being killed innocently this way,” he says.

POLICE TO BE PROBED
Incidentally two days before he was shot by the police, a Facebook user by the name Alcapone Pinocchio posted pictures of three men on the social media group “Kibera ni Kwetu” which included ‘Vale’ claiming they were terrorising the area.

Vijana hawa ni hatari na wameumiza wengi kwa kuwaibia huku Lindi na viungani mwake haswa wafanyi biashara. Hizi hapa picha zao. (These boys have harassed and stolen from many people in Lindi and its environs especially businessmen. These are their pictures),” he wrote.

Another young man we have identified only by his street nickname “Malola”, who was gunned down last month, had also been mentioned in the same Facebook group by a Ballak J Kelvin in May 6 last year for stealing a mobile phone.

“Hey guys, I was robbed of my phone at Darajani by two men at around 8.30 pm, and from my research, one of them is known as Malola and he stays in Makina. Anyone who knows him tell him to bring it back because I am not interested in hunting him down but if he wants I will,” said Kelvin in that post.

Ali Marjan (Aleza) also disappeared and was found dead last month after his photo did rounds on the same Facebook group.

His cousin, Malasin Abdul, says he had reformed and was supposed to travel to Dubai two days before he disappeared.

The National Police Service has said that it will look at the allegations against the four officers.

“The inspector-general can never stand up and defend officers who kill in cold blood,” police spokesman George Kinoti told the Sunday Nation.

“Even if you are a police officer, you cannot say that you are protected by the law when you kill people aimlessly,” he says.