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8,000 Kenyans Killed by Cops, Lawyers Say

Police call charges against outlaw sect 'fictitious'

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(Newser) – 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.

A woman tries to extinguish a burning taxi during fighting between police and the Mungiki sect, Thursday, June 7, 2007 in the Mathare slum in Nairobi, Kenya. (AP Photo/Khalil Senosi)
A woman tries to extinguish a burning taxi during fighting between police and the Mungiki sect, Thursday, June 7, 2007 in the Mathare slum in Nairobi, Kenya. (AP Photo/Khalil Senosi)   (Associated Press)
A man is rounded up by the police during fighting between police and the Mungiki sect, Thursday, June 7, 2007 in the Mathare slum in Nairobi, Kenya. (AP Photo/Karel Prinsloo)
A man is rounded up by the police during fighting between police and the Mungiki sect, Thursday, June 7, 2007 in the Mathare slum in Nairobi, Kenya. (AP Photo/Karel Prinsloo)   (Associated Press)
School children react as they walk past people rounded up during fighting between police and the Mungiki sect , Thursday, June 7, 2007 in the Mathare slum in Nairobi, Kenya. (AP Photo/Karel Prinsloo)
School children react as they walk past people rounded up during fighting between police and the Mungiki sect , Thursday, June 7, 2007 in the Mathare slum in Nairobi, Kenya. (AP Photo/Karel Prinsloo)   (Associated Press)
Unidentified people cry as they leave the main mortuary in Nairobi, Kenya on Tuesday, June 5, 2007 hours after police killed 20 suspected members of a religious sect called Mungiki. (AP Photo/Sayyid Azim)
Unidentified people cry as they leave the main mortuary in Nairobi, Kenya on Tuesday, June 5, 2007 hours after police killed 20 suspected members of a religious sect called Mungiki. (AP Photo/Sayyid Azim)   (Associated Press)
Gunbattles erupted in a Nairobi slum Thursday, June 7, 2007, killing at least 10 people, as police conducted house-to-house searches for members of the outlawed sect known as Mungiki. (AP Photo/Karel Prinsloo)
Gunbattles erupted in a Nairobi slum Thursday, June 7, 2007, killing at least 10 people, as police conducted house-to-house searches for members of the outlawed sect known as Mungiki. (AP Photo/Karel...   (Associated Press)
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