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Friday, February 7, 2025
Independent AfricaKenya to start trials of 'killer police squad'

Date:

Kenya to start trials of ‘killer police squad’

Four policemen in Kenya who have been accused of a spate of murders, abductions and torture will be arraigned today in the capital, Nairobi.

They are said to be part of an elite squad that was disbanded by President William Ruto for reportedly executing extrajudicial killings and disappearances of suspects over several years.

Two Indian nationals who went missing in July and whose remains were discovered last week in a forest in central Kenya, are among their alleged latest victims.

The members of the now disbanded Special Services Unit face multiple charges including murder, abuse of office and conspiracy to commit felonies.

The unit was disbanded after the president received a police report on the disappearance of the two Indian nationals.

Zulfiqar Ahmad Khan and Mohamed Zaid Sami Kidwai were in Kenya to help the electoral campaign of Mr Ruto, but they went missing together with their local driver Nicodemus Mwania soon after being picked up by police in Nairobi.

Human Rights groups say their independent investigations have linked the squad and other police units to the death of more than 600 people over the past four years.

Some of the bodies were later recovered in rivers in western and northern Kenya.

A coalition of international and local NGOs is now calling on the government to prosecute the rogue officers, and to compensate the victims of police excesses.

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