Kenya to start trials of ‘killer police squad’

Four Kenyan policemen accused of being behind a spate of murders, abductions, and torture across the country are set to go on trial on Monday in the capital, Nairobi.

They were part of an elite squad that was disbanded by President William Ruto for allegedly carrying out extrajudicial killings and disappearances of suspects over several years.

Among their alleged latest victims were two Indian nationals who went missing in July and whose remains were discovered last week in a forest in central Kenya.

The members of the now-disbanded Special Services Unit face multiple charges including murder, abuse of office, and conspiracy to commit felonies.

The unit was disbanded after the president received a police report on the disappearance of the two Indian nationals.

Zulfiqar Ahmad Khan and Mohamed Zaid Sami Kidwai were in Kenya to help the electoral campaign of Ruto, but they went missing together with their local driver Nicodemus Mwania soon after being picked up by police in Nairobi.

Human Rights groups say their independent investigations have linked the squad and other police units to the death of more than 600 people over the past four years.

Some of the bodies were later recovered in rivers in western and northern Kenya.

A coalition of international and local NGOs is now calling on the government to prosecute the rogue officers and to compensate the victims of police excesses.

Agencies