Nineteen-year-old Charles Owino was killed by a gunshot to the head during anti-government protests near Nairobi in July, according to an autopsy report reviewed by Reuters. However, Kenyan police recorded his death as a road accident, his brother stated, referencing the morgue logbook he was shown after visually identifying Owino’s body. Reuters has not independently verified the logbook entry.
In another case, police attributed the death of 21-year-old protester Shaquille Obienge to a road accident. However, the government’s autopsy revealed he died from a gunshot wound to the neck. Both deaths occurred on the same day in Kitengela, a suburb of Nairobi.
Morgue logbooks in Kenya record causes of death based on initial police reports. Public pathologists typically conduct autopsies only after bodies are identified by relatives.
Reuters interviewed three police officers deployed during protests who claimed that Kenyan authorities sometimes misrepresent deaths caused by police as “road accidents,” “mob justice,” or “drownings” in morgue records to obscure accountability. The officers spoke on condition of anonymity.
Autopsy reports reviewed by Reuters detailed the deaths of Owino, Obienge, and two other young men killed during the protests in June and July. Relatives in three cases cited discrepancies between the causes of death recorded in police reports and the findings of autopsies.
Morgue Records and Allegations of Misrepresentation
The morgue logbook entries for Owino and Obienge initially lacked names. Family members identified the bodies by matching tags on the remains to corresponding entries in the logbook, which listed their deaths as accidents. In the third case, Kepher Odiwuor Ouma, 24, was reported by police as a victim of “mob justice.” However, two eyewitnesses told Reuters that Ouma had been detained during a protest on July 3, beaten unconscious, and later found dead.
The battered body of a fourth protester, Denzel Omondi, was discovered in a water pool on July 6, nine days after he went missing. His autopsy attributed the cause of death to drowning.
Kenya’s National Police Service, the offices of President William Ruto, Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua, and the Interior Ministry did not respond to Reuters’ inquiries about these cases.
Rights Groups and Independent Findings
The protests, driven by opposition to tax hikes and political corruption, began in late June and involved thousands of young Kenyans. Rights groups have accused authorities of covering up alleged police killings, abductions, and illegal detentions during what came to be known as the “Gen-Z Protests” due to the youth-dominated demographic.
Amnesty International and Kenya’s National Commission on Human Rights have reported significant increases in enforced disappearances and extrajudicial actions. The latter recorded 82 cases of enforced disappearances between June and December, compared to nine cases in the preceding 18 months.
Human Rights Watch and other organizations have linked these abuses to the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI), including a specialized unit known as the Operation Action Team (OAT). This unit allegedly absorbed members of the disbanded Special Service Unit (SSU), which had been implicated in hundreds of extrajudicial killings.
Government Response and Oversight
Deputy President Kithure Kindiki acknowledged in December that some deaths resulted from police action, while President Ruto admitted to “instances of excessive and extrajudicial actions by members of the security services.”
The Independent Policing Oversight Authority (IPOA), tasked with investigating police misconduct, reported 10 complaints related to unlawful arrests, abductions, and disappearances in July. However, the agency has not provided further comment or updates.
Disputed Death Toll and Alleged Cover-Up
A Reuters review of morgue records from the Nairobi Funeral Home, the city’s busiest public morgue, found inconsistencies in police-reported deaths. Between June 25 and September 30, police recorded only nine gunshot deaths, despite widespread reports of live ammunition use during protests. Over the same period, the morgue logged a 25% increase in total police-submitted bodies compared to the prior year, with significant rises in deaths attributed to “mob justice” and “drownings.”
Irungu Houghton, executive director of Amnesty International Kenya, questioned the low number of gunshot deaths reported, suggesting a potential cover-up.
Impact on Victims’ Families
Victims’ relatives described harrowing searches for loved ones and encounters with police denial. George Obienge, father of Shaquille, said morgue staff initially refused to let him search for his son and falsely claimed all recent entries were road accident victims. When he identified his son, the autopsy confirmed a close-range gunshot wound to the neck.
The families of other victims have raised similar concerns, demanding accountability for what they allege is systematic misrepresentation of protest-related deaths by authorities.
Ongoing Investigations
While some families and rights groups have filed complaints with IPOA, no substantial progress has been reported. The lack of transparency and continued silence from key officials and institutions have left many questions unanswered about the true scale of police actions during the protests.
(Reuters)