8,000 Kenyans Killed by Cops, Lawyers Say

Kenyan cops have killed or fatally tortured more than 8,000 youth since 2002, human rights lawyers charged today. The deaths, along with 4,000 cases of missing men, are allegedly part of a state crackdown on the Mungiki—an outlawed sect the government blames for gang violence. Police have dismissed the report as “fictitious” and “a document not worth responding to.”

The charges come only a month before Kenya's elections, which pit President Kibaki against an opponent who vows to eliminate the Mungiki. The sect, which spread leaflets and vowed to upset the elections this summer, now claims it wants peace with the government. (More Kenya stories.)