Series of murders spark fear over return of dreaded sungu sungu

Curious residents of Nyamira Town mill around the car which was used by suspected members of the dreaded Sungusungu members who were intercepted as they went to dump the body in a forest near Sotik in Bomet County. Return of the sungusungu goup has sparked fears amongst residents as cases of exrajudicial killings are on the rise. [PHOTO: STANLEY ONGWAE/STANDARD]

 

A series of murders in Nyamira County over the last one week are raising suspicion that the dreaded sungu sungu vigilante group may be back. On Tuesday, a businessman was killed at Keroka town and his body dumped about 50 metres from his residence, within the town’s Posta area.

The killers used sharp objects to hack the man, identified as Francis Kinuthia, a businessman. Three days before the trader’s killing, three people were lynched by unknown people in two different occasions.

In the Friday night incident, a man suspected of engaging in car theft was hacked with sharp objects and killed at Nyamaiya area of Nyamira South Sub-county.

On Saturday night, two others who were said to have been involved in cases of robbery with violence were killed before being doused in petrol and their bodies set ablaze by people later identified by the police as boda boda riders from Nyamira town.

And for the fear of the gang, which previously mainly targeted suspected criminals, five other people suspected to have engaged in a car-theft syndicate pleaded with a Nyamira court to protect them after they raised concerns that members of the sungu sungu vigilante group were baying for their blood if they were released without security arrangements in place.

And in the most recent development, police in Nyamira recovered the body of a 30-year-old man in a car that was bound for dumping around Kipkebe forest in Nyamira North Sub-county.

A man aged between 25 and 30, who was in the car, was arrested as he tried to run away from the police who were chasing after the saloon car. The occupants of the vehicle had avoided a police road block before the chase ensued, leading to the discovery.

Coincidentally, the arrested suspect hails from Kisii South, just as the man who had been killed and whose body was headed for dumping. After the suspect was arrested, it was discovered that there was a connection between him and a character that could be linked to the feared community policing gang, who he had saved in his phone book memory as Elijah sungu sungu.

The suspect had mentioned the name Elijah while being interrogated by police and after further scrutiny of his phone, the names were found.

The suspect, together with the other man, rightly identified as Elijah Onsare by Nyamira coordinating commander in charge of operations, Mwakurungu Madoe, was suspected to have been behind the murder of the person who they had already dumped in the forest.

The arrested suspect said he works at the Kisii bus terminus as a tout while his accomplice also works as a tout at the Keroka bus stage. If the incidences could be pointing to the return of the vigilante group is a question that security agents have shied away from answering.

On Tuesday, residents of Keroka, with members of the business community, convened a crisis meeting following the killing of the trader and disbanded the town’s community policing committee after it was unanimously condemned of hiding some criminal elements that were undermining insecurity in the area.

A new committee was formed as a result, and a new chairman chosen.

The committee will be having all ethnic groups represented in the town represented by at least one person. When asked if the group was behind the killings that had been reported region, Keroka OCPD Patterson Maelo said the group was non-existent in the area.

“The residents are the ones who have powers over community policing, but the sungu sungu group is outlawed and it remains so,” said Mr Maelo.

According to him, the cases were under investigation and the police could not divulge anything more to do with suspicion over the matters.

Last month, the County Government of Nyamira set aside Sh7 million to boost community policing in the region. More than 10 years ago, the group was active in extrajudicial killings of people suspected to be criminals.