By RAMADHAN RAJAB @rrajab
Thursday, September 22, 2016
Central police station in Mombasa where three suspected terrorists were gunned down, September 11, 2016. /ELKANA JACOB
Pressure is growing for an independent probe into the Mombasa Central police station shootings that have been termed part of a police conspiracy.
Rights activist Al Amin Kimathi said the government must commit to establishing the truth with a view to bringing an end to cases of extrajudicial killings.
Kimathi said the investigation is necessary as police statements on the September 11 ambush have a lot of inconsistencies.
“The Independent Policing Oversight Authority and the Kenya National Commission on Human Rights should team up with civil society to get to the bottom of it,” he said.
Kimathi said the matter of extrajudicial killings is "tipping over" as more youths have become extremists because of similar cases.
"We cannot arrest the tide towards violent extremism while allowing such incidents to thrive," he said.
His remarks came after a video surfaced, showing police shooting one of the three suspected terrorists at the station, while her hands were raised in surrender.
“Looking at that video... It is so disgusting that we are paying police officers to commit murders,” said Peter Kiama, executive director of the Independent Medico-Legal Unit (IMLU).
He said the case should be handed over to IPOA and the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions to create trust.
As Kenya takes drastic steps in the war against terror, agencies including Human Rights Watch, KNCHR, Haki Africa and Muslims for Human Rights have documented cases of extrajudicial killings and forced disappearances linked to security agencies.
Muhuri said the three "innocent girls" shot dead at the police station were two sisters and a friend who finished form four last year .
The organisation said they were mishandled after going to report a crime, and that police faked the suicide bombing narrative to cover their wrongdoing.
Muhuri chairperson Khelef Khalifa rubbished the police version of the story - that the women entered the station in the guise of wanting to report phone theft, with the intention of blowing it up in an act of terrorism.
“Such killings have become the norm and I doubt if they will ever end. The reason we need an independent investigation is to put those culpable to account,” he said.
Khalifa demanded to see the suicide vest and the knife police claimed the women had, and wants officers they reportedly stabbed to be paraded.
Muhuru also questioned the repainting of the police station, and repairs on the reporting desk said to have been burned during the attack, before investigations are completed.
Police were not immediately available for comment on this.
Two of the women have been identified as Fatuma Omar and Tasnim Yakub, while the third one is yet to be identified.
Government spokesperson Eric Kiraithe said on Tuesday that the slain women hurled a petrol bomb at the station, forcing them to open fire in self defence.