Human Rights Watch and Mukuru Community Social Justice Centre have urged the government to finalise and publicly disclose the results of their investigation into the mutilated bodies found at the Mukuru Kwa Njenga quarry in July 2024. The groups insist that the inquiry must address claims of police threats and intimidation directed at Mukuru community members and activists.
They reported that volunteers accused the police of threatening them and forcing them to halt the retrieval of bodies. Eight months on, the authorities have done little to ease the fears of community members and relatives of missing individuals, raising concerns of a potential cover-up regarding the victims’ fates and those responsible.
“Rather than hindering the retrieval of bodies, Kenyan police should swiftly and thoroughly investigate the circumstances behind the dumping of bodies at the quarry,” stated Otsieno Namwaya, associate Africa director at Human Rights Watch. “The Independent Policing Oversight Authority must probe police behaviour, including threats to volunteers who assisted in retrieving bodies, and ensure those responsible for abuses face prosecution.”
According to Mukuru community members, security forces, including officers from the Directorate of Criminal Intelligence (DCI), the anti-riot General Service Unit (GSU), and regular police persistently tried to stop the retrieval since 12 July, when the first six bodies were pulled from the water-filled abandoned quarry. They claimed officers ordered volunteers to cease their efforts or face charges linked to the deaths.
Human Rights Watch and Mukuru Community Social Justice Centre interviewed 21 individuals, including relatives of victims, activists involved in body retrieval, one police officer, and Mukuru Kwa Njenga residents. Researchers also examined autopsy reports of 17 retrieved bodies and reviewed satellite imagery of the quarry from mid-June to late July.
Interviewees recounted that after the initial retrieval of six bodies, police and other security agents initially stood by as volunteers climbed into the quarry to recover more decomposing remains. However, the agents soon resorted to firing tear gas and live rounds at onlookers, injuring several. Three days after police halted the retrieval, the quarry was set ablaze by individual witnesses believed to be policemen destroying evidence. At least four interviewees reported seeing uniformed officers at the quarry nightly until two days before the fire.
The discovery of the bodies came just two weeks after protesters against proposed tax hikes stormed parliament, amid an intense police crackdown involving threats, arbitrary arrests, abductions, and enforced disappearances targeting mostly young demonstrators. Many families remain without news of their missing loved ones. Volunteers reported retrieving at least 30 gunny bags containing body parts between 12 and 18 July, with 13 recovered in the first two days.
The bodies were consistently packed in similar gunny bags, tied with plastic bands, alongside bags of rubbish, possibly as camouflage. When police intervened, gunny bags with body parts remained in the quarry. Three volunteers expressed ongoing fears for their safety, claiming they were being trailed by suspected police officers.
One volunteer recounted surviving two abduction attempts: one on 19 July by 12 armed GSU and DCI officers, and another on 20 November by two plainclothes men with three uniformed officers from Kware Police Station, driving an unmarked white Toyota Fielder with tinted windows. “If the public hadn’t stepped in, I’d be dead,” he said. “My abductors said things like, ‘You’ll never retrieve bodies here again.’ I’m marked—if I’m arrested again, I might not survive.”
On 15 July, police announced the arrest of Collins Jomaisi Khalisia, who allegedly confessed to murdering 42 women, including his wife, and dumping their bodies at the quarry. Yet, on 20 July, they reported his escape from Gigiri Police Station, with no prosecutions tied to either the bodies or his escape. Preliminary postmortem findings, as reported by the media, revealed that the examined bodies were severed at the waist or abdomen, with pathologists assessing parts of only 17 out of 30 recovered. Ten were female, while seven were too mutilated to identify gender. Four victims died from blunt force trauma, one from strangulation, and the cause of death for 12 remained undetermined.
“Kenyan authorities must exhaust all efforts to deliver justice for the victims’ relatives, ensuring any remaining bodies or parts are retrieved and identified,” Human Rights Watch and Mukuru Community Social Justice Centre stated. Volunteers and witnesses found body parts of at least one additional body post-fire, believing many more remain.
Relatives identified and buried six victims, all Nairobi residents, including Josephine Mulongo Owino, missing since 26 June 2024—a day after the parliament breach—and others missing around the same period. “President William Ruto must ensure volunteers who retrieved bodies when police wouldn’t are not threatened or abducted for their civic duty,” said David Anami, head of Mukuru Community Social Justice Centre. “Police should focus their expertise on securing justice for the quarry’s victims.”
