Tensions were high at the crime scene in the Mukuru slum area in Nairobi, as police briefly fired tear gas to disperse a crowd of angry residents, an AFP journalist reported.
Police chiefs are investigating possible links to cults, serial killers, or rogue medical practitioners in the macabre case that has shocked and angered the nation.
Mutilated and dismembered bodies, wrapped in plastic bags, were pulled from floating rubbish in an abandoned quarry in Mukuru. These discoveries have once again spotlighted Kenyan police and added pressure on President William Ruto, who is struggling with a crisis over widespread anti-government protests that resulted in dozens of demonstrators being killed.
Acting national police chief Douglas Kanja said six corpses were found in Mukuru on Friday, and more body parts were retrieved on Saturday, with preliminary investigations revealing all were female.
“They were severely dismembered in different states of decomposition and left in sacks,” Kanja told a press conference, describing it as a “heinous act.”
He promised “transparent, thorough, and swift investigations,” aiming to conclude the inquiries in 21 days. Kanja, appointed only on Friday amid the fallout from last month’s protest bloodshed, also said all officers at the police station near the quarry had been transferred.
Kenya’s police watchdog, the Independent Police Oversight Authority (IPOA), said it was investigating possible police involvement in the dumped bodies, noting the dumpsite was just 100 meters from the police post. The IPOA is also probing claims of abductions of demonstrators who went missing after last month’s protests but did not link these to the dumped bodies.
An AFP journalist reported that in the absence of a police search on Sunday, volunteers combed through the vast piles of rubbish in search of more victims. Trouble erupted briefly when locals tried to take a bag they had found to the police station, only to be met with volleys of tear gas.
Mohamed Amin, the head of the Directorate of Criminal Investigations, said the victims’ ages ranged from 18 to 30, and all had been killed and butchered similarly.
“Are we dealing with a cult associated with criminal activities, or are we dealing with serial killers?” he said at a press briefing alongside Kanja. “We could even be dealing with rogue medical practitioners.”
Kenya was left reeling last year by the discovery of mass graves in a forest near the Indian Ocean coast, containing the bodies of more than 400 members of a doomsday sect, one of the world’s worst cult-related massacres.
On Monday, self-proclaimed pastor Paul Nthenge Mackenzie went on trial on terrorism charges, along with 94 co-defendants, over the deaths. He is accused of inciting his followers to starve themselves to death to meet Jesus. He and the other accused also face charges of murder, manslaughter, and child cruelty in separate cases over what has been dubbed the “Shakahola forest massacre.”
The country’s law enforcement services are already under scrutiny over the protest deaths, with rights groups accusing police of using excessive force. Kanja took up his post this week after national police chief Japhet Koome resigned amid public outrage over alleged police brutality.
A total of 39 people were killed and more than 630 injured during the unrest, Kenya’s national rights commission said earlier this month. Kenyan police are often accused by rights groups of using excessive force and carrying out unlawful killings or running hit squads, but few have faced justice.
