(CNN) Residents along this slum's smoky, twisting alleys say they're caught in the middle of a battle between the police and a murderous street gang known for beheading its victims.
A report by the state-funded human rights commission on Monday linked police to the deaths of over 450 young Kenyans in the past five months in a crackdown on the gang, known as Mungiki.
Police denied involvement, but slum dwellers backed the commission in interviews Tuesday.
"People were arrested in a crackdown against [Mungiki] and have never been found. Relatives say they disappeared without a trace and they don't know if they are dead or alive," said Irungu Wakogi, who owns a restaurant in Mathare, Kenya's second largest slum. Many of the victims investigated by the commission came from Mathare.
Most of the 454 bodies were killed by a single bullet to the back of the head, and dumped in mortuaries around the country despite permanent police roadblocks on all major roads.
Samuel Mwangi, a 40-year-old soccer coach and father of three, said that several people in his area of Mathare had been killed by police after a gang attack killed two officers and stole their guns.