Families of Tsavo Seven demand bodies for burial

Murimi Mutiga @murimimutiga 

Their decomposing bodies had wires and ropes around their necks, burnt nylon around the arms, while the legs and hands were tied behind their backs, a sign they could have been tortured to death.

Juma Said Sarai, Khalfan Linuka, Abdalla Nassir Gatana and Usama Nassir are among seven people, whose bodies have been lying at the Makindu Sub-county Referral Hospital mortuary for the past month. 

The bodies were recovered by police at Tsavo West National Park on diverse dates between January 1 and 20.

However, only four have positively been identified by relatives and are expected to be buried in Kwale today.

Yesterday, families of the deceased who have been camping at the mortuary staged a street demonstration on the Mombasa-Nairobi road demanding to be given the bodies for burial.

Carrying placards, the families and human rights activists, said they have been camping at the hospital since Saturday morning but have not been given the bodies even after complying with all requirements.

Bodies dumped

Civil society groups have accused police of involvement in the killings, saying the deceased could have died from torture. 

Haki Africa executive director Hussein Khalid said the deaths bear the hallmark of extrajudicial killings.

However, confidential reports claim the deceased were terror suspects linked to a sleeper cell operating in the Coast region.

Two of them are alleged to have been members of al Shabaab  before returning to the country.

The four men were among 11 people listed in a report handed over to the Independent Policing Oversight Authority (Ipoa)  last Thursday as cases of enforced disappearances that were blamed on the police.

According to Khalid, the victims disappeared from their homes in Kwale county between November and December last year after being picked up by people who identified themselves as police officers.

Police believe the suspects were killed by abductors and bodies dumped in the forest. 

One of the deceased, Juma Said Sarai, 36, was abducted by three men at his home in Kibundani area in Kwale county on October 4.

His family claimed one of the men produced a police badge when they were asked to identify themselves.

“We have been looking for him and we have not seen him until Saturday when we arrived at the Makindu hospital mortuary,” said his father Juma Matano.

Suleiman Said, 47, the father of Khalfan Linuka, whose body was also recovered from the forest, says his first born son was picked up by about 20 police officers who broke into his house on December 22.

“I feel pain for my first son, he died a painful death. He was not a criminal…” said Said.