A bereaved family has condemned Athi River police for denying serial killings on the controversial East Africa Portland Cement land in Athi River town.
The relatives of Daniel Maondu, a boda boda operator whose body was retrieved from a pond on the land this Tuesday said they did not understand why the police were hiding the deaths.
“I was this Tuesday shocked to hear on a local Kamba radio the Athi River sub-county OCPD Kizito Mutoro deny that there were killings on the controversial East Africa Portland land in Athi River town and threatening to arrest those whom he claimed peddle propaganda that people have died on the land. This is not fear hence as a family, we demand explanations,” said the deceased’s mother in law Mary Ndeti.
Ndeti said there were several women who had lost their husbands to the land’s conflicts.
“The information is circulating everywhere that people are being killed on the land, why deny and more killings are being reported each day? There is need to seriously investigate this matter,“ said Ndeti.
She said the deceased who was a member of a group that claims part of the land went missing last Friday only for his body to be retrieved on the waters four days later.
Ndeti said officers from the same police station are the ones who retrieved the body after it was spotted by a Maasai who was herding cattle on the land that day.
“Maondu must have been hacked to death before being dumped into the pond during the rains, the body was not seen until the waters subsided when the herder spotted it and informed the police,” said Ndeti.
The deceased sister in law Anastasia Mwema said there could be more casualties and deaths registered on the land over the past one week.
Unconfirmed reports from other sources, however, allege that the number of those who have been killed during the clash have risen from two from when it was first reported last Wednesday to ten.
“The numbers of the men who have died on the land has definitely risen. When we took Maondu’s body to Machakos Funeral Home’s Mortuary on Tuesday, another group brought in a fresh body from Athi River. We are also aware that there are bodies lying at Machakos Level Five Mortuary of people who were killed on the same land,” said Mwema.
The relatives said they paid the police money to help search the deceased after he had gone missing, to retrieve the body after it was found and move it to the mortuary.
“There are no people coming to our aid to help us sort out bills as we prepare to take the body to the deceased’s rural home in Kitui County for burial. The officers helped us look for the body, we paid them including moving it to the mortuary. They had threatened to dump it at the Machakos Level Five’s Hospital’s mortuary if we fail to pay them,” said Mwema.
The relatives spoke to this writer at the deceased’s rental house in Athi River town on Thursday.
Maondu has left behind a wife and two children.
A spot check revealed that there were other several casualties of the land’s wrangles undergoing treatment in a number of private hospitals in Athi River town.