NAIROBI Kenya May 24, 2023 -Amnesty International Kenya and Human Rights Watch have expressed concern that nearly two months after a series of nationwide protests in Kenya, insufficient action has been taken to hold police officers and their commanders accountable for the disproportionate use of force in the killings of at least 12 people, shooting and beating of many others.
Human Rights Watch, and Amnesty International Kenya are now calling on the Independent Policing Oversight Authority (IPOA) to urgently conclude their investigations into all deaths and the unjustified use of force by the police.
The National Police Service (NPS) and all other relevant authorities should also publicly guarantee the right of everyone to peaceful assembly and protest in future, both human rights organizations argue.
“The Kenyan authorities should stop glossing over the abuse of protesters by the police and other acts of violence,” said Mausi Segun, Africa director at Human Rights Watch.
“They should urgently and thoroughly investigate police abuse during recent protests, including the failure to protect demonstrators from attacks by others,” he added.
Between April 7 and 17, Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International Kenya interviewed 115 witnesses and victims of police violence during protests in Nairobi, Kisumu, Migori and Homa Bay towns. The organizations found that riot police repeatedly attacked people and used excessive and unnecessary force, including lethal force, to suppress the protests on March 20, 27 and 30.
“Brutal policing of protests guaranteed under our constitution is unacceptable,” said Irũngũ Houghton, Amnesty International Kenya Executive Director.
“Kenyan authorities need to take meaningful steps to pre-empt violent protests by facilitating the right to assembly and hold officers criminally accountable for unlawful policing. Failure to act on the March brutality opens the door to more violence in future.”
Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International Kenya have documented killings, illegal arrests, beatings, destruction of civilian property, indiscriminate and disproportionate use of tear gas and water cannons, and other serious rights violations. At least 12 killings by police officers during protests in interviews with family members and witnesses have been corroborated.
While some of the victims were involved in the protest, most of those killed, according to the witnesses interviewed, were bystanders, passersby, or people in their homes and business premises. In a few instances in Kisumu and Nairobi, multiple sources described how police fired live bullets in residential areas and inside classrooms in schools and colleges.
In one case, relatives of Elijah Okumu, 26, said the police shot him during the protests on March 27 as he was closing his shop in the Dandora neighbourhood, Nairobi. Relatives rushed Okumu to Mama Lucy Hospital in eastern Nairobi and later transferred him to Kenyatta National Hospital, where he died from his injuries.
A relative said the family had reported the killing to IPOA, but they have been unable to determine whether investigations have started.
Human Rights Watch and Amnesty Kenya also documented about 12 cases of gunshot injuries in Kisumu, Migori, Homabay and Nairobi. In one case, the police arrested, beat and shot a secondary school student, Brian Carlos Oduor, in Korumba, in the Riat neighbourhood of Kisumu, on March 30 on suspicion that he was a protester.
Oduor and witnesses who spoke to Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International Kenya said that at the time of his arrest, he was carrying a gas cylinder, which he told police officers he was going to refill. The officers threw him out of their Land Cruiser vehicle and began kicking him when a gunshot went off. Oduor was shot in his lower left arm.
The police officers then fled, leaving Oduor injured and alone. He received first aid from passersby, who rushed him to a hospital for treatment.
A brutal police crackdown on journalists from various media outlets covering the March 30 protests on Outering Road near the Pipeline estate in Nairobi was also reported.
The journalists said the police tried to prevent them from live streaming the protest, used water cannons to destroy cameras, harassed some journalists and forced others to delete footage. The journalists said they felt targeted, frightened, and unable to help those injured.
“The demonstrations were peaceful; people were chanting, happy and waving peacefully. The police threw tear gas at the protestors,” one journalist said.
“Vehicles and protesters on foot were blocked from either side by the police with no exit route. The air was suddenly filled with tear gas and coloured water…we were trapped and gasping for air.”
Police also fired tear gas into residential neighbourhoods, including people’s homes and schools, which affected people’s health and led to the death of at least two children, witnesses said. Joyce Kemunto, 39, said she lost her 4- month-old daughter after police shot tear gas into their home in Kibera, Nairobi, on March 30.
Edith Asava, a guardian to Lewis, also testified that Lewis is still nursing a broken skull and injuries sustained when police lobbed a teargas canister on him.
“When the tear gas was thrown, some of the canisters landed on the roof, and the smoke came inside where my 4- month-old baby, Precious, was,” she said. “My baby started crying. I took a cloth and water and began wiping her face alongside my other children…There was nowhere to go outside because tear gas was being thrown everywhere. So, we stayed inside, and the baby cried until she stopped breastfeeding.” She said that the baby’s condition worsened, and she started bleeding from her nose and died on the way to a hospital.
Similarly, the youngest son of 31-year-old Jackline Moraa from Kibera, Nairobi, died on April 4 after inhaling teargas after police threw teargas into their neighbourhood on March 30. She said doctors at Mbagathi Hospital suspected the tear gas had affected his chest leading to breathing difficulties.
While the protests appear to have been mostly peaceful, Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International Kenya found that some individuals committed grave acts of violence, including theft, looting, attempted rapes and caused grievous bodily harm. While the media have reported some arrests, Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International Kenya have found that police failed to intervene to stop the violence or to investigate cases effectively.
Ali Said, 17, said he was attacked by a group of protesters with crude weapons in Kaloleni, Kisumu on March 27. Said said the protesters beat him severely and cut his stomach with a knife. He was later rescued by a [motorcycle] rider, who rushed him to the hospital. He reported the attack to the police but is unaware of any police action or investigations into his case.
The rights to life, peaceful assembly, association, and freedom of expression are fundamental human rights guaranteed under Kenya’s Constitution and international human rights treaties to which Kenya is bound, including the African Charter on Human and People’s Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.
The UN principles on the Use of Force and Firearms and the Second Schedule of the National Police Service Act allow the police to use force only when strictly necessary and to the extent required to achieve a legitimate objective. The police should only use tear gas when necessary to prevent further physical harm and, where possible, issue an advance warning. During violent protests, the use of tear gas must be proportional to the seriousness of the offence. It must meet a legitimate law enforcement objective and be used to minimizes the risk of harm. The deliberate use of lethal force is only permissible when it is strictly necessary to protect life.
In August 2022, Kenya held a contested and disputed election which resulted in the formation of a new government by President William Ruto.
On March 9, 2023, Raila Odinga, leader of the opposing Azimio Coalition, announced a 14- day ultimatum calling on Ruto’s government to address the high cost of living and alleged fraud in the 2022 elections, amongst others. The first protests began on March 20, with Odinga announcing further biweekly demonstrations. In mid-April, bipartisan talks between the government and the opposition stalled but recently resumed.
News media, the Kenya National Commission on Human Rights and civil society documented the rights violations. They condemned the declaration by President Ruto, the government, and police officials that the protests were “illegal during the March upheavals.
Human Rights Watch, and Amnesty International Kenya have independently and jointly previously documented political interference in efforts to achieve accountability for police abuses, as well as investigative failures by the oversight authority, lack of lack of police cooperation, lack of political will to end the abuses and ensure accountability, and stalled police reforms.
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