Ex-flying squad officer’s widow says husband was betrayed

Ex-flying squad officer’s widow says husband was betrayed


Updated Sunday, August 18th 2013 at 08:43 GMT +3

Police officers at a crime scene. [PHOTO: FILE/STANDARD]

By Daniel Nzia
Kenya: Have the dark days of the infamous extra-judicial killings resurfaced?


This is the question families whose relatives have disappeared and eventually found murdered in unclear circumstances in the recent past are asking.
One such family is that of the late Dadson Wahome Gitune, 31, a former Flying Squad officer from Tetu in Nyeri County. Gitune’s body was among the four found dumped in separate river beds in Machakos and Makueni counties on August 9.
Mwala OCPD Kiragu Mugo said the first body was discovered at Isivuni River on the Masii-Tawa road while the second was found at Thwake River bridge, a few kilometers away.
Mbooni East OCPD Peter Njeru said Gitune’s body was found in River Waani drift on the Tawa-Mbumbuni road.
Njeru said the body was identified by his widow Mary Muthoni Karanja at the Makueni District Hospital mortuary on Monday.
According to a close family member who did not want to be named, Gitune and the other three who are yet to be identified were executed by the police.
“The postmortem report indicate Gitune was hit with the butt of a gun on his head before he was strangled by his killers using his own shirt,” said the family member.
He told The Standard on Sunday that Gitune, who left the police force about a year ago, could have been eliminated by his former colleagues.
“The government should come out clean on these killings and explain to Kenyans whether the yesteryear eliminations have returned,” said the family spokesman.
Most police officers who served under the many crack units have been murdered in unclear circumstances while others have expressed fear for their lives.

Mugo said he was still waiting for the results of the finger prints of the other victims which were taken to Nairobi for identification.
“It appears the victims were murdered elsewhere and dumped by their assailants,” he said.

The police chief said the victims had marks on their necks and hand, an indication that they had been tied with either robs or wires before they were struggled to death.
Yesterday, the late Gitune’s widow said her husband excused himself on Thursday morning to meet a friend who had called him at Equity Bank in Nairobi’s Kasarani area.
“I had put his breakfast on the table when someone I believe was known to him called him. He told me he would come back to take his breakfast and that was the last time I saw him alive,” Mrs Karanja said.
“He was supposed to take an application letter to a place he had been promised a job and I wanted to remind him time was running out but his phone was switched off.”
She then called her husband’s friends to find out whether they knew his whereabouts.
“My fears dawned on me when I read in The Standard on Sunday of August 11 that some bodies where found dumped in Machakos and Makueni the previous day”, she said.
This prompted her to search for his body at the city mortuary, Machakos Level Five Hospital mortuary in vain before she proceeded to Makueni on Monday.