Kenya:Kenya's police yesterday denied killing hundreds of suspected members of the Mungiki criminal gang, after a human rights group called for an international inquiry into allegations of gross police misconduct.
Earlier this year, the Mungiki gang terrorised Kenya with a spate of beheadings and killings after clashing with police in a Nairobi slum. That prompted a government crackdown during which scores of suspects were gunned down by police.
Local human rights groups late last month accused police of executing suspected Mungiki members and dumping their bodies outside Nairobi after a morgue in the capital was filled to capacity.
On Monday, the government-funded but independently run Kenya National Commission on Human Rights (KNCHR) called for an international inquiry into the executions, and blamed police for executing almost 500 suspected Mungiki members.
KNCHR chairman Maina Kiai, a frequent government critic who was recently accused and then cleared by the government's anti-corruption arm, said Kenyan police were "clearly incapable or unwilling to investigate the complaints".
The police commissioner, Maj Gen Hussein Ali, said KNCHR was engaged in grandstanding to gather media attention on an issue making headlines less than two months before an election.
"These are extremely grave allegations made without a shred of evidence," Maj Gen Ali told reporters.
"We find this . . . highly irresponsible for a public official to engage in unwarranted rumour."
Mr Kiai had said almost 500 people were executed by police between June and October during the Mungiki crackdown.
Maj Gen Ali said all arrested suspects had been presented to the courts.
He said KNCHR was silent when police officers were killed in the line of duty: "While we don't seek their sympathy . . . the alacrity with which criminals attract their undivided support is telling."
Mungiki went on the rampage earlier this year, raising fears the gang would play an active part in the election, which is due to take place on December 27th.
Though founded in the early 1990s by members of Kenya's largest tribe, the Kikuyu, as a quasi-religious group espousing a return to traditional values, police and observers say it has metamorphosed into Kenya's version of the Mafia.
It operates extortion and protection rackets, particularly on Kenya's lucrative minibus trade, and is believed to have members inside Kenya's police and security apparatus, along with powerful politicians who use its members as muscle for hire.