Angry Kenyan protesters burn down crime scene of police murders

About a hundred angry protesters have torched down a police container on Wednesday in the south of the Kenyan capital Nairobi believed to be where the killed human rights lawyer and two others were kept before they were murdered.

The container situated at the police camp where the four police officers suspected of being involved in the killing work was burned down by mostly motorcycle taxi drivers despite its cordoning off as a crime scene.

One of the protesters, Andrew Musyoki, told AFP that they burned the container to “serve as a memorial for the murdered people”.

Local Kenyan media report that the police looked on while the angry protesters burned down the crime scene.

The police commissioner for the area condemned the action of the protesters saying those involved would be arrested.

“There is no reason for the people to destroy a police station. In fact, they are trying to destroy evidence. We will treat them as criminals,” Geoffrey Omoding, the deputy police commissioner of the Athi River county said.

The three murdered victims disappeared on June 23 after a court hearing in Makovo in the outskirts of Nairobi. Their mutilated bodies were found dumped on Friday, July 1 in the Ol Donyo Sabuk River in Machakos County, southeast of the capital.

The human rights lawyer, Willie Kimani’s wrists were tied, three of his fingers cut off and his eyes gouged out, according to the Kenyan press.

The second victim, Josephat Mwendwa is the lawyer’s client who had filed a complaint alleging that he had been shot and injured by police in April. The third was their driver.

Kenyan lawyers declared a week-long strike on Monday over the murder of their colleague.

The fourth police officer detained over the murders appeared before a court in Nairobi on Tuesday where investigators requested more time to investigate the crime scene including the container burned on Wednesday.