A video has emerged online depicting a brutalised man limping with the help of a staff after he was allegedly tortured by Police in Lamu over the disappearance of an officer.
This was after Kizingitini Police Constable Hesbon Anunda went missing on Wednesday of October 2.
At the time of his disappearance, Lamu County Commissioner Irungu Macharia issued a 12-hour ultimatum for the residents to produce the missing officer or face dire consequences.
Reports indicate police would embark on a rampage, brutalizing the youth in the area before the missing cop’s body was discovered in a forest.
In the video recorded by a mobile phone, the unidentified man’s back has marks showing he had been repeatedly whipped, with injuries all over his body.
Two women are heard consoling with the man as they lead him to a house to have take refuge.
Instead of @NPSOfficial_KE working with the local leaders to find the missing officer, they decided to use violence. The officer was later found dead. The war against terror can't be won if the police can't win the hearts and minds of their host, the local community. @SamiaOBwana https://t.co/zoazi8rumk
— Boniface Mwangi (@bonifacemwangi) October 7, 2019
Constable Anunda’s body would be recovered three days after disappearing with his head and hands chopped off.
Police in Lamu said that they were helped by a local to trace Anunda’s body dumped off Kizingitini Mbwacumwali road by unknown assailants.
The officers failed to trace PC Anunda’s G3 rifle which was loaded with 60 rounds of ammunition at the time of his disappearance from Kizingitini Police station.
Lamu County has been dogged by recurrent insecurity cases since 2011 when the Government launched “Operation Linda Nchi” after a British tourist was kidnapped by suspected Al Shabaab militants who had crossed over into Kiwayu Village Resort.
An upsurge of same-styled security incidents would emerge in the area up until the Government launched another Operation “Linda Boni” after it emerged the militants could be hiding in the dense Boni Forest.
The highest death toll would be witnessed in 2015 when Shabaab militants raided villages in Lamu killing over 100 people in a bloodbath that drew international attention.