NAIROBI Kenya May 31 -Amnesty International Kenya and Human Rights Watch have urged the police oversight authority to urgently conclude their investigations into all deaths and the unjustified use of force by the police during the recent nationwide protests.
The human rights bodies expressed concern that nearly two months after the protests, 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.
The organizations also said the National Police Service and all other relevant authorities should also publicly guarantee the right of everyone to peaceful assembly and protest in future.
“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 HRW.
“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, HRW and AI-K 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.”
They have also 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.
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. 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.
While the protests appear to have been mostly peaceful, it was found out 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,” they said.
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