NAIROBI, Kenya, March 9 (UPI) -- Two human-rights activists critical of alleged extrajudicial killings by Kenyan police have been gunned down, prompting calls for an independent investigation.
Oscar Kamau Kingara, director of the Kenya-based Oscar Foundation, and John Paul Oulo, Oscar Foundation program coordinator, were killed Thursday near the University of Nairobi.
According to a release from Wikileaks, an Internet-based group of anonymous contributors leaking sensitive information, Kingara and Oulo were allegedly shot at close range in a vehicle after encountering a roadblock by a "minibus and a Mitsubishi Pajero vehicle," the release said.
Kingara and Oulo were investigating alleged extrajudicial killings and enforced disappearances committed by the Kenya Police. The deaths of Kingara and Oulo have been widely criticized by groups such as the London-based human-rights group Amnesty International and the Kenya National Commission on Human Rights.
Additionally, Wikileaks called for participation from the international community to fund an investigation into Kingara and Oulo's death.
"These were very decent men who had done more work than anybody in examining police killings," said Cyprian Nyamwamu, executive director of the National Convention Executive Council, a non-governmental organization advocating social and economic reform, according to Wikileaks.
"I have no doubt that is why they were killed."
