Nairobi, Kenya - Kenya's human rights commission combed through a forest on Thursday after receiving allegations that police may have killed suspected gangsters and hidden their bodies in the woods.
The government-appointed group acted on information provided by two men who said they were picked up by police who threatened to kill them and dump their bodies in a hole in Karura Forest. Both men have links to Mungiki, a secretive gang accused in a string of beheadings that have terrorised Kenya.
"The fact that there is a state of fear does not license police to execute people extrajudicially," said Hassan Omar Hassan, commissioner of the Kenya National Commission on Human Rights.
The commission team of about 12 people searched parts of the forest for freshly dug-up ground, but found nothing suspicious. Hassan said the search would continue in coming days, with the help of the men who made the allegations.
Police spokesperson Eric Kiraithe denied the claims of extrajudicial killings, saying anyone connected to Mungiki would have reason to lie about police, who have been cracking down on the group in recent months.
Police have faced criticism for their Mungiki operations, with residents saying police have indiscriminately rounded up people, demolished their homes and beat them.
Alexander Kangethe Njai, one of the men who testified before the commission Thursday, said he was picked up last month by several officers who knew he was a sect member and then brought to Karura Forest on the outskirts of Nairobi.
"He pointed to a hole and said, 'We are going to kill you and put you in there,"' Njai said during his testimony before a commission official. He said police beat him and tried to shoot him twice but the gun jammed both times.
He said he was imprisoned for more than a week until his wife paid a bribe of 25 000 Kenya shillings (about R3 000).
The second testimony was from Danson Wahome Njoroge, who also claimed police took him to Karura and threatened to put his body in a grave. He escaped after paying a bribe to a police officer who recognized him, Njoroge said.
Njoroge is a member of the Kenya National Youth Alliance, which police say is simply another form of Mungiki, created after the sect was banned in 2002.
Mungiki claims to have thousands of adherents, all drawn from the Kikuyu, Kenya's largest tribe. The group, whose name means "multitude" in the Kikuyu language, was inspired by the bloody Mau Mau rebellion of the 1950s against British colonial rule. In recent years, it has been linked to extortion, murder and political violence.
The secretive group makes money by demanding protection payments from minibus drivers and by controlling illegal businesses that produce homemade alcohol or provide electricity to slum areas by re-routing the circuits.
The minibuses, known as matatus, are the main form of public transportation in Kenya.
Mungiki members have threatened to disrupt the elections in December, when President Mwai Kibaki will seek a second term. Leaflets circulated by the group call on Kenyan youth to join up and prepare for an uprising against the government.
"Arise! Arise! Arise!" one of the leaflets says. "Stand up for your rights now." - Sapa-AP