At least eight decomposing bodies, each wrapped in body bags, were discovered in a quarry in Mukuru, Embakasi South, Kenya, three weeks following violent anti-tax protests marked by police shootings, abductions, and enforced disappearances.
This troubling discovery surfaced amidst accounts detailing numerous abductions and cases of enforced disappearances during the protests, which escalated when demonstrators breached the Kenyan Parliament on 25th June.
“Some of the bodies retrieved from a quarry in Mukuru, Embakasi South, today were mutilated. By the time of this publication, eight bodies had been recovered—six in the morning and two in the afternoon,” Kenya Human Rights Commission said in a tweet on Friday.
The Human Rights Commission added, “Kenya Kwanza regime, led by @WilliamsRuto, must take accountability for this heinous crime.”
In a statement, Kenyan police’s Department of Criminal Investigation said, “Preliminary investigations suggest a similar mode of killing for the deceased. The bodies have been transported to the City Mortuary, where they await post-mortem examinations.”
Before Friday’s discovery, Denzel Omondi, a third-year student at Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology who participated in the protests against the Finance Bill, was discovered deceased in a swamp in Juja, two days after protesters stormed the Kenyan Parliament.
Despite President William Ruto’s denial of any massacre or abductions during the protests, recent events have raised doubts about the circumstances surrounding the deaths of those discovered in the quarry in Mukuru.