Kenyan police charged with murder over human rights lawyer's death

Four Kenyan police officers have been charged with the murder of a human rights lawyer and two others.

The suspects pleaded not guilty but the judge ordered they remain in custody.

The accused face three counts of murder for the deaths of lawyer, Willie Kimani, Josphat Mwenda and their driver, Joseph Muiruri.

The three went missing in June after Kimani filled a case against a police officer on behalf of his client, Mwenda.

A week later; decomposing bodies of the three were discovered in a river, in the outskirts of Kenya’s capital, Nairobi.

The killings had sparked outrage in Kenya while many have blamed the police force for series of extrajudicial killings in the country in recent years.

34 Kenyans and international human rights organisations have condemned the killings.

kenya’s official rights body said security forces carried out 25 extrajudicial killings between 2013 and 2015.

However, the government has denied the existence of police death squads saying the killings were carried out by mischievous officers.

Government spokesman Eric Kiraithe told BBC there were no “death squads” within the police force and that allegations of officers committing crimes would be fully investigated.