Senator Billow Kerrow arrested over Mandera mass graves claim

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.

Interior Cabinet Secretary Joseph Nkaissery had ordered all those who made allegations that there were mass graves in Mandera to apologise by Thursday December 10th or face arrest.

Nkaissery termed the allegations as alarmist, saying they frustrate the war against terror.

Speaking while addressing the media at Harambee House on Wednesday, the CS ordered journalists Yassin Juma and Mohammed Ali, who he blamed for breaking the news, to apologise, further accusing them of lacking patriotism.