Five people whose bodies were found dumped in a forest in Nyeri a fortnight ago could have been killed after they were suspected of involvement in terrorism.
Sources have revealed that two of them had secretly travelled to Somalia where they received military training before sneaking back into the country. Three days before they were executed, the two were said to have travelled to Nairobi on an undisclosed mission.
A relative to one of the deceased revealed that they were informed by a person whom he declined to name, that the youth were killed over suspicion of being members of the terror group.
The fresh details contradict initial reports that the five, Yusuf Mwangi Mohammed, also known as Pique, 18, Mohammed Kaburu, 19, Kelvin Kihuri, 25, Simon King’ori, and Martha Wairimu Gitonga, 25 were common criminals who had been terrorising Nyeri residents.
When their bodies were discovered in Tagwa Forest on April 16, shocked relatives told journalists that they were picked by police as they left a popular bar in Ruring’u where they had been watching a football match.
Relatives of the deceased have since clammed up and are unwilling to talk just as the witnesses who initially testified that they saw the victims being loaded into a police vehicle outside the pub.
It has been established that some of the potential witnesses have gone underground and have not recorded any statements with the police to assist in establishing what actually happened on the night of April 16, 2014 at around 10 pm.
In a press statement issued yesterday, Independent Medico- Legal Unit (IMLU) alleged that the deceased were picked by four police officers and ferried in a vehicle that had been donated by the local county government.
“They were reportedly taken to Central Police Station in Nyeri the same night, but were not recorded in the Daily Occurrence Book as the case should have been. Incidentally, the five were found dead the following day and there were no spent cartridges on the scene,” reads the statement, which signed by IMLU Executive Director Peter Kiama.
According to autopsy reports, the four male bodies had gunshot wounds and there are indications that they were shot at close range, some at distance of not more than 30 cm.
The reports further claim the female body showed that she died from asphyxia (lack of oxygen) due to hanging.
There were significant physical injuries to the hands and wrists in two of the bodies which may suggest physical assault of the deceased before they were shot dead.
Security sources that cannot be quoted as they are not authorised to talk to the press, have intimated that police were interested in the two young men who had just returned from Somalia.
Adapted from Standard.
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