[allAfrica.com] [celtel.com] Police Accused of Executing 7 Suspects The East African Standard (Nairobi) NEWS July 19, 2004 Posted to the web July 19, 2004 By Otsieno Namwaya Nairobi Seven people shot dead by the police last week in Kisii allegedly because they were robbers may have been executed in cold blood. Eyewitnesses yesterday said the seven - including a taxi driver and a sickly man suffering from a mysterious disease and whose distended stomach was highlighted by the East African Standard last year - were executed by a single CID officer at Nyangema village. But District Commissioner Abdullahi Leloon defended the police from the accusations, saying the officers were "very good and cannot just gun down innocent people". He said the seven were well-known criminals and "the people of Kisii are celebrating that the thugs have been killed". But witnesses questioned the credibility of the police account of the Wednesday night events, wondering how eight people could have fitted in a four-seater taxi. The official version released last Thursday said the seven were killed in an exchange of fire with police officers responding to a tip-off on a planned robbery. The police said they intercepted the car and ordered the suspects to stop, but they declined and sped off. The officers then gave chase and the suspects on realising that they were being cornered, opened fire on the police, who in return killed the seven while the eighth escaped with bullet wounds. But residents challenged the police to explain whether the taxi driver was also a robber. According to one eyewitness version, there were only four people in the taxi by the time it was flagged down by a CID officer from the Kisii Police Station at 8.30pm. After they stopped and got out of the car, they identified themselves accordingly as ordered by the officer. "The officer then asked all of them, including the taxi driver, to lie down, searched them and then started talking by phone, apparently to his superior. Someone, apparently another officer, then came with three other suspects who were also ordered to lie down. The CID officer then shot all of them, one by one," said a lady witness who asked not to be named. The following day, the seven bodies were displayed outside the Kisii Hospital Mortuary for the whole day. The eyewitness accounts also contradict the police claim that firearms were recovered from the suspects, saying none were recovered when the suspects were searched and they cannot understand where the guns displayed by the police came from. They also insist that there was no exchange of fire as the suspects obeyed a police order to stop. The witnesses called for an investigation into the incident, that is likely to generate debate on whether police are supposed to 'shoot-to-kill' suspects before they are tried. The Kisii police chief, Mr Francis Lemangi, declined to comment on the allegations. But DC Leloon said one of those killed, a Mr Evans Sianyo, had recently been released for lack of evidence after being accused of the murder of the two chiefs last year. But sources in Kisii said there were people who had resolved to eliminate Sianyo immediately he was released last month, supposedly because he planned to sue for compensation and reveal the names of some officers believed to have been dabbling in crime and committing extra-judicial killings. Sianyo, the sources said, was aware of the threats to his life and had been in hiding since his release. He had planned to travel to Nairobi on Thursday to sue the Government for compensation, along with journalist Peter Makori, whom he had been charged with. Makori had also complained of threats on his life, and during the shootings, he was already in Nairobi ready to file complaints with the Independent-Medico Legal Unit (IMLU), the Police Commissioner and the Attorney General as a first step to suing for compensation. Another victim, Mr Elijah Omache Ntabo alias Katumbo, has been ailing for years now, and was nicknamed 'Katumbo' because of his distended stomach that also made him very weak. His story has been carried in the East African Standard several times in 2000, 2002 and last year, following which there was an outpouring of public sympathy and well wishers - including the World Vision - donated towards his medical bill. And because of his medical condition, residents are finding it hard to believe that he was killed while on a robbery mission. Others killed in the incident are Jared Mochache Obegi, Justus Ochoki Magori and James Kang'ethe, a businessman in Kisii town. Even before the shootings, the East African Standard had got wind of the volatile security situation in Kisii and when our team visited the place last week, several people were hiding from both the police and a vigilante group nicknamed Kisungu Sungu. Those who spoke to the East African Standard talked of the presence of an alleged hit list by the vigilante group in Suneka Division, Kisii district. Those in the list - which we obtained - included a former chief, an assistant chief, a businessman, political activists and professionals and were accused of either being criminals or having participated in the murder of the two chiefs last year. Those targeted had all gone into hiding for fear of execution, with some accusing law enforcement agencies in the district of refusing to protect them.   =============================================================================  Copyright © 2004 The East African Standard. All rights reserved. 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