NAIROBI, Kenya, Nov, 6 – The nominee for the Inspector General of Police Japheth Koome will have tough questions to answer as he faces the parliamentary vetting committee, especially on extrajudicial killings by police.
He is set to appear before a special joint parliamentary committee on security from both the Senate and National Assembly next week for vetting on his credibility to head the police department.
The vetting is expected to be conducted on Tuesday.
Key among the issues expected to come up is human rights violations by police officers particularly extrajudicial killings which were rampant during Koome’s stint as Nairobi County Police Commander.
One of the highlight cases that has emerged ahead of the vetting is the 2017 execution of two teenagers in Eastleigh.
On April 1, 2017 two teenagers were executed by police in full glare of a crowd of people on the streets of Eastleigh in Nairobi.
The triggerman during the cold blooded murders of the dual identified as Mohammed and Jamal was an infamous vigilante cop based at Pangani Police Station and a member of the dreaded Pangani Six, a shadowy undercover police unit.
The execution that was caught on cell phone footage by a civilian, captured the officer pump 11 bullets into one of the teenagers, who died next to his friend who had been shot dead earlier.
The juvenile’s pleas for mercy and the full glare of the public were no good as the officer was determined to eliminate him. So determined was the vigilante cop to kill the teenager that he even reached for a second firearm when the first ran out of ammunition.
All this time, it would emerge, the officer was receiving shoot to kill orders from top police commanders through his police issued radio.
In fact, videos that emerged on social media showed the officer talking into his radio seconds before turning the gun on the teenager who was begging for dear life.
Findings later showed that the orders to publicly execute the two teenagers, who were accused of being gangsters and affiliates of the Super Power gang, came from top police commanders allegedly at Nairobi County Police Headquarters.
At the time, the Nairobi County Police Commander was Japheth Koome who has now been nominated to be the next Inspector General of Police.
Mr Koome accused the two teenagers of being armed gangsters who were behind the killing of two police officers in Soweto and Kayole.
The police boss claimed that a week earlier, a police corporal based at Kayole had been shot dead.
Another officer, he claimed, had been killed in Soweto on the night of March 31, a few hours prior to the killing of the teenager. He claimed they were behind the killings of the officers.
“I buried an officer yesterday killed by the same gangsters. Another was shot dead in Kayole last night. Now I have to bury another officer,” Mr Koome said.
Police procedures and human rights notwithstanding, the police boss showed no remorse over the killings of the two teenagers saying more would be killed.
“When my officer is dead you do not ask about that one but when I kill a gangster; and I will kill many more…” an irate Japheth Koome said in an interview with Nation.
The extrajudicial executions of Mohammed and Jamal drew condemnation from relatives, human rights activists and legal lobby groups who faulted the police for the killings.
While their relatives admitted that the two had a history with petty crime, they denied that they were affiliated to any gangs or were armed robbers.
The Independent Policing Oversight Authority (IPOA) said it would investigate the matter. No arrests were ever made with regards to the killings. The officer behind the trigger was never questioned and continued to run the shadowy Pangani Nine police unit.
Mr Koome received a promotion shortly after and was named the Commandant at the National Police College, Main Campus in Kiganjo, Nyeri County.
Five years down the line, Mr Koome has received yet another promotion, this time being nominated by President William Ruto as the next Inspector General of Police.
Ironically, Mr Koome faces scrutiny by parliament at a time the police department is under the microscope over gross human rights violations, enforced disappearances and extrajudicial killings.
His administrative and tactical judgments in his previous command posts, particularly as Nairobi County Police Commander, will be vetted.
Notably, Mr Koome’s stint as the capital’s top cop was clouded by violent crime and mushrooming of criminal gangs like the dreaded Kayole-based Gaza and Super Power.
It was also during his stint that human rights violations and vigilantism under questionable undercover police units shot up with the formation of undercover police units like Pangani nine which is accused of being behind tens of extrajudicial killings of suspected gangsters.
As the police boss faces the vetting committee, human rights defenders Independent Medico-Legal Unit Director Peter Kiama has called on the committee to exercise due diligence during the process.
“During the vetting we expect that the committee will look into any pending issues or active investigations against individuals being considered for posts in the security sector. We are also keen to know how the nominee for the IG post intends to deal with matters of extrajudicial killings,” Mr Kiama said.
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