Leaders condemn the arrest of Mandera Senator Billow Kerrow

Political leaders from Garissa County have thrown their weight behind Mandera Senator Billow Kerrow following his recent arrest on mass grave claims.

Speaking during the marking of the Jamhuri day celebration, leaders led by Garissa senator Mohamed Yussuf Haji faulted the government over what they termed as intimidation and silencing of people speaking on government’s failure on its legal responsibilities.

The Garissa senator said it is the sole responsibility of the government to investigate the alleged extra judicial killings.

The senator, who said he has been in the government for the last 50 years, said the leaders are representative of the people and they are mandated to speak on their behalf noting it was wrong for the government to apprehend the Mandera Senator.

Mandera Senator Billow Kerrow was on Thursday morning arrested alongside five other MPs over his utterances regarding the existence of mass graves in the county, despite having issued an apology over the remarks as ordered by Interior CS Joseph Nkaissery.

Kerrow was reportedly taken to the Directorate of Criminal Investigations Headquarters on Kiambu Road in Nairobi to record a statement over the claims, which he, alongside other legislators from the region, made on Monday.

In the press briefing, the legislators had accused the Kenya Defence Forces of extra judicial killings linking it to the discovery of a woman’s body on Sunday.

The legislators said that they had evidence that links KDF to the disappearance of people in the past three years, saying those who disappeared had been picked up by military personnel in unmarked cars and driven into military camps.

Upon the emergence of the reports, police acquired a court order on Tuesday that allowed them to dig up the area to ascertain the claims.

No other graves or bodies were, however, found after two hours of excavation.

The arrest came hours after the Mandera County leaders, led by Senator Billow Kerrow, apologised for claiming that there were several mass graves in the area.