Six decomposing female bodies were found in a quarry in the Kenyan capital of Nairobi on Friday, according to police, sparking a protest at a nearby police station.
“The alarm was raised following the discovery of six severely mutilated bodies, all female, in various stages of decomposition” in the quarry, which was being used as a dumpsite, according to a statement by the Directorate of Criminal Investigations.
The area has been cordoned off as a crime scene, and “preliminary investigations suggest a similar mode of killing of the deceased,” the statement said. The bodies were found wrapped in “nylon papers and reinforced with nylon ropes” and have been transported to a mortuary where “they await postmortem examinations,” police added.
The identities of the dead or how long the bodies had been at the quarry were not immediately clear.
The horrifying scene comes after weeks of anti-government protests over a since-scrapped finance bill. The protests resulted in scores of civilian deaths amid a heavy-handed response from Kenyan police. Human rights groups have also accused security forces of abducting Kenyans during the protests.
The discovery of the bodies on Friday has sparked fresh public anger and brought a new spotlight to Kenya’s femicide crisis, just months after thousands of women marched on the streets with banners reading: “Stop killing us.”
Fallout from protests
Dozens of people were killed in police shootings across the country in just one day of the anti-government protests in June, according to Kenya’s Police Reforms Working Group (PRWG).
Kenya’s presidency announced that Japheth Koome, the country’s police chief, resigned on Friday. His deputy, Douglas Kanja, has been named acting police chief.
Friday’s move comes after nearly all of President William Ruto’s cabinet was fired, with the exceptions of Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua and Prime Cabinet Secretary Musalia Mudavadi.
The decision was taken “upon reflection, and a holistic appraisal” of his cabinet, he told reporters from State House Nairobi.
This is a developing story and will be updated.