Zimpapers Logo

Nairobi — The state-funded Kenya National Commission on Human Rights on Tuesday reported “widespread and systematic” abuses by security agencies during the country’s crackdown on terrorism, including 25 extra-judicial killings.

More than 80 people have also disappeared, while many have been tortured with methods including beatings, electric shocks and mock executions, according to the report.

The report said the crackdown “disproportionately” targets ethnic Somalis and Muslims. It did not initially give a time frame for the alleged abuses, but the crackdown started about nine months ago.

Police spokesperson Charles Owino said police were studying the report and would later respond. Interior Minister Joseph Nkaissery said earlier that the government was investigating the disappearances. The militant group al-Shabaab has staged attacks in Kenya since 2011, when the country sent troops to Somalia to help the government battle the Islamists.

It targeted Nairobi’s Westgate shopping mall in September 2013, killing 67 people, and a university campus in the eastern town of Garissa in April, killing at least 148. — AFP.