Mungiki Attack

Mungiki sect members abducted a six-year-old Sudanese boy living in Nairobi’s Komarock estate last Thursday and killed him before they dumped his mutilated body on the door-step of his grand mother early Monday, police and witnesses said.

Family members identified the deceased boy as Emmanuel Agwar, who was a Standard One pupil at Newlight Academy in Komarock, according to his uncle Peter Ajak.

The boy is the first born and has been living with his mother and younger sister but would occasionally visit his grandmother whose house is located less than a kilometer away.

His father works in Sudan, but occasionally visits them, according to the family.

“He disappeared on Thursday. He was last seen riding a bicycle outside his grandmother’s house which is not very far from their main house within Komarock Phase 2. He was never seen alive again,” Mr Ajak said.

The family has been staying in fear since Thursday and dreaded any strange phone calls on their mobile phone, lest it originated from the abductors known for demanding ransom.

And for the three days, no person or group called to claim responsibility, deepening the disappearance mystery even further.

Neighbours said that the boy’s family seldom interacts with others, preferring to stick to themselves. The deceased boy hardly played with other children in the estate.

“Instead, he plays alone or rides a bicycle. I am always able to locate him,” a house help who is among people who last saw him alive said.

She narrated how master Agwar started out last Thursday.

“He came back from school, changed (his uniform) and said that headed off to his grandmother’s. Later on, I realized it was cold and gave one of the children a pullover to take to him. He returned and said he has not been able to locate him. That is when I personally went to look for him but I still could not find him,” she added.

The house help says they mobilized people to knock on all doors in the neighbourhood, but all in vain.

“When he failed to return the following morning, we put up an appeal and mounted posters with his photograph in the entire estate and other neighbouring places. We also placed an appeal on a local television station but no responses were forthcoming,” she said.

Area Divisional Police Commander Shadrack Maithya confirmed the matter had been reported at the station.

“We have been looking for the boy, until this morning (Monday) when we received information that his mutilated body had been found in Komarock,” Mr Maithya said and pointed an accusing finger at the proscribed Mungiki gang.

“They have been abducting people around here and demanding ransom.”

According to the deceased boy’s family, the body was discovered by a neighbour who was jogging on Monday morning.

“She was running in the morning when she stumbled on the body wrapped in a gunny bag, about three meters from the spot where he was last seen alive,” the boy’s uncle said.

“The eyes were gorged out, tongue removed and the head had been skinned. We were only able to identify it by the clothes he wore when he was seen last,” Ajak said.

A neighbour who also witnessed the gory scene said: “I have never seen something like that. We can’ even call that a body.”

And even long after the police had taken the body to the mortuary, residents discovered more body parts scattered about 100 meters from the deceased boy’s house.

“We have recovered his jaws and the entire dental formula which were missing from the body and we are waiting for the police to come and collect them,” Mr Ajak said as he showed us the body parts.