Hold perpetrators of enforced disappearances, extrajudicial killings to account, Ichung’wah appeals

Thursday, 9th March 2023

Perpetrators of enforced disappearances and extrajudicial killings must be held to account if Kenya is to bring an end to the vices, the National Assembly Majority Leader Kimani Ichung’wah has asserted.

Ichung’wah made the rallying call to members of parliament to help the nation deal with the vices, which have struck fear among Kenyans for years.

“If we do not deal with our past, nothing stops other regimes, even in the future, from carrying out extrajudicial killings unless people are held to account,” he told parliamentarians at a session on Tuesday.

Ichung’wah urged the Director of Criminal Investigations Mohamed Amin to serve with courage in order to help eradicate enforced disappearances and extrajudicial killings.

The Majority Leader said those who abused their powers in past regimes to commit the vices against innocent Kenyans must be made to answer for their crimes.

“I want to ask the DCI Amin not to fear anybody,” he said.

“The only reason why things keep repeating themselves and we get into a vicious cycle of repeating the same mistakes as a country is because we never hold anybody to account. It cannot be that close to 1,200 people have disappeared into thin air. Some their bodies are found, others their bodies are not found. Therefore, we must get to the root cause of all this.”

Ichung’wah appealed to the legislators to lend their voices and influence to the families who have been left distraught after their kin disappeared.

He pointed out the case of Mwenda Mbinjiwe, who disappeared in June 2021 and his family has never obtained information on his whereabouts.

“The families of hundreds of Kenyans who have disappeared and they have never seen their bodies, let them know what happened to their children and their family members,” Ichung’wah said.