Hundreds protest in Nairobi over death of Kenyan rights lawyer

Kenyan authorities must urgently investigate the killing last week of three men, including a human rights lawyer, and ensure that those found responsible are held to account in fair trials, 34 Kenyan and worldwide human rights organizations said today.

Activists will hold demonstrations today (4 July) in Nairobi and other parts of Kenya to protest against the killings.

The bodies of lawyer Willie Kimani, his client Josphat Mwenda, and their taxi driver Joseph Muiruri, were recovered from Ol-Donyo Sabuk River in Machakos County, 73km north-east of Nairobi, on 30 June, a week after the three went missing. Eric Kiraithe, a government spokesman, told the BBC there were no police “death squads” and that allegations of criminal officers would be fully investigated.

“Supporting Kenyan security agencies without insisting on accountability for human rights violations makes donor countries complicit in those violations“, local and worldwide human rights groups said in a joint statement. Others wore T-shirts with the slogan “Stop police executions”.

Kimani was representing his client Mwenda, a boda boda operator, in a case where they allege that Mwenda had been shot and injured by police in April 2015. Protesters took a petition to police headquarters, parliament, the president’s office and the Supreme Court. A statement by 34 global human rights organizations condemned [AI report] the murders and hundreds have taken to the streets of Nairobi to protest [Swiss Info report] extrajudicial killings in the capital. “That a lawyer working for an global organisation and his client could be abducted and disappeared in broad daylight only to be found dead is a matter that cannot be taken lightly”.

The three suspects include Senior Sergeant Fredrick Leliman, Administration Police (AP) Constable Silviah Wanjiku Wanjohi and Corporal (AP) Stephen Chebulet Molongo. Mr. Mwenda had accused the police of “harassing him for more than a year after” filing the report.

Also, they want an inquiry into all extrajudicial killings in Kenya.

Boinnet has however rejected claims that police sanction extra judicial killings and vowed ensure those responsible are held to account.

“The ELS is outraged by news that the murder of the three after they were last seen detained at the Syokimau Administrative Police Camp in Machakos County prior to their disappearance”, he said.