Kenyan authorities have released many of the children imprisoned in a crackdown against a brutal militia in the west of the country, a human rights advocate and a detention official said Friday, according to AP. Rights defender Martin Wanyonyi said a 14-year-old released Friday was the last of 32 children held in Bungoma prison. The Associated Press last week documented the children's charges of torture by the military since the crackdown began in March. An employee at another detention center said most of children where he worked have also been released, although a few remained in custody. «They have been letting them go in batches,» he said. He asked that the Associated Press provide no further details to protect him and the children from reprisals. During an investigation by the AP, dozens of detained children exhibited scars they said were caused when soldiers beat them and tortured them using pliers, barbed wire and clubs. Local human rights officials documented the horrific conditions the wounded children were held in, packed so tightly in complete darkness there was no room even to lie down to sleep. The government and military previously denied all knowledge of torture or imprisonment of children with adults. They could not be reached for comment on the releases.
