A report has been issued by the Kenya National Commission on Human Rights (KNCHR) that contains evidence of a high level policy in Kenya to murder criminals and ‘trouble-makers.’ This report is severely damaging to the reputation of Kenya’s government under President Mwai Kibaki.

The report reveals that in the last 18 months, at least 500 men have been killed or have disappeared in a police campaign that has likely government ties. The campaign appears to target members of the Mungiki, a particularly violent criminal gang outlawed in Kenya in 2002.

President Kibaki had issued a statement last year that gang members should ‘expect no mercy’ from his government. In the days following, more than 300 Mungiki members were arrested and 20 killed.

John Michuki, the internal security minister, said: “We will pulverize and finish them off. Even those arrested over the recent killings, I cannot tell you where they are today. What you will certainly hear is that so and so’s burial is tomorrow.”

The KNCHR has since documented the 300 names along with about 200 victims that could not be identified, as they were booked into the mortuaries as ‘unknown.’

The report states that victims were initially shot to death but that the police have since moved onto beatings, strangulation, drowning, and other torture-like methods in an attempt to make the public believe the killings are a result of rival gangs. Through witness testimonies, the report tells of police death squads carrying with them crude weapons such as iron bars and rope with a clear message of intent. The United Nations committee against torture is currently investigating the evidence in the report.

The Commission believes the police were linked to an extortion racket in which they demanded money from family members in return for the release of arrested individuals. “These acts were ordered, directed or coordinated by the top leadership of the Kenya police acting jointly with a common purpose,” it stated.

Public opinion has swayed from the police since the start of violence related to Kibaki’s reelection at the start of the year. Many of the Commission’s informants are in hiding for fear of their lives and in light of the recent murder of Bernard Ngirinya, a former policeman present at many murders, turned informant.

The report has been presented to President Kibaki and other senior government officials in Kenya as well as the UN but it is not expected that it will be taken seriously, with Kenya’s police commissioner, Major-General Hussein Ali, brushing away what he called the report’s “rather infantile accusations.”