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Mavoko MP arrested over AP camp burning

He is accused of inciting youths - mainly motorcyclists - to torch the AP camp last week. Photo/FILE

He is accused of inciting youths – mainly motorcyclists – to torch the AP camp last week. Photo/FILE

NAIROBI, Kenya, Jul 11 – Mavoko MP Patrick Makau was arrested on Monday after surrendering at the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI).

The legislator was wanted for questioning over the burning of the Syokimau Administration Police camp, where three people – including lawyer Willie Kimani -are said to have been detained before they were tortured and later killed.

“He is in custody for questioning,” a senior police officer at the DCI Headquarters said.

He is accused of inciting youths, mainly motorcyclists, to torch the AP camp last week.

Makau had been summoned over accusations of inciting boda boda operators to burn Syokimau AP camp.

Lawyer Kimani and taxi driver Joseph Muiruri were buried at the weekend while the lawyer’s client Josephat Mwenda will be buried on Monday.

The Administration Police camp that was burnt was vital to investigators because it was marked as a scene of crime with evidence that was yet to be collected.

“He knows what he did and it was wrong,” Inspector General of Police Joseph Boinnet said on July 8, after the legislator went into hiding.

According to the MP, the July 6 protest in solidarity with the families of the three victims and right groups was peaceful, while questioning police for failing to act, when the arson happened.

“I want to let Kenyans know that boda boda riders are disciplined and none of them torched that container,” the MP told Capital FM News while at Milimani Law Courts. “In fact, I am the one who donated that container, but not to be used as a killing tool.”

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The lawmaker was later due to be transferred to Machakos County to face charges there since the AP camp falls under that jurisdiction.

LSK President Isaac Okero, has also questioned why police allowed demonstrators to destroy the camp where the three were held prior to their deaths.

“Somebody needs to explain how that can happen,” he said. “They just sat down and watched and yet they have been strict on protestors. That needs to be explained.”

An autopsy report released in court on July 6 showed that the three victims of extra-judicial killings were tortured, strangled and their skulls crushed in murders described by pathologist Andrew Gachie as “most painful.”

Their bodies were discovered in Ol Donyo Sabuk River in Kilimambogo after disappearing for more than a week.

“My Lordship, having worked in the area of torture, sometimes we do say that some death can be extremely painful,” the pathologist said.

Nothing, he found in his forensic examination, was sacred to their “torturers” who went as far as inflicting injury on Kimani’s genitalia.

“Whoever was inflicting these injuries seemed to have had an affinity on the testicles and they crushed them.”

In total, the human rights lawyer suffered 14 injuries to his person but ultimately it was blunt force trauma to the head that did him in.

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“The deceased had extensive fractures of the skull,” Gachie relayed to the court.

His client, Josephat Mwenda who had accused an Administration Police and now a suspect in his murder of trumping up charges against him, also died from blunt force trauma inflicted on his head, neck and chest.

Their taxi driver Joseph Muiruri wasn’t spared from suffering a painful death despite his bystander, collateral damage status and died from asphyxiation.

“We also noted that there were multiple injuries in various parts of the body but my Lordship the most remarkable one was a ligature mark. By ligature we mean a string or rope or something had been tied around his neck causing what we refer to as strangulation.”

Four police officers are still detained till July 18, when they will take a plea. No charges were read to them when they were presented to court.

Detectives are still pursuing more suspects, two police officers and a civilian, who are believed to have played a role in the incident that has attracted condemnation from right groups and Law Society of Kenya.

Inspector General of Police Boinnet has said substantial progress has been made in the probe, even as LSK continues to call for his resignation.

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