NAIROBI, Kenya, Oct, 18 – Human rights groups have called on President William Ruto to constitute a commission that will investigate allegations of human rights abuses by the police in recent years.
HAKI Africa Executive Director Hussein Khalid, says that officers found culpable of an offense should be jailed as widows and mothers of victims call out for compensation.
Murder and enforced disappearance have been identified as the major reason that made the president order the disbandment of the Directorate of Criminal Investigations’ Special Service Unit (SSU).
Scores of victims of the brutal ‘death squads’ as has been termed by a section of human rights activists are said to be from slum neighborhoods in areas sauce as Mathare.
The slum, which overlooks the affluence of Muthaiga while bordering the fast-growing Eastleigh neighborhood has been a place of pain for many women whose husbands and sons have died by the bullets of guns, they say were shot by police officers.
“Recently they arrested a teenager and he was tortured with his nails removed. This child died a terrible death, the government must help us because we have lost many of our children,” said Monica Ndung’u. resident Mathare.
The line between enforcing the law in a bid to curb criminal acts from identified elements, has many times become blurry, with residents and human rights officials stating that police officers have so often played, investigator, judge, and executioner.
“Its true crime is among us but when our children commit crimes let them be prosecuted and taken to jail because at least one day we will still see them,” she said.
The statement by the head of state recently acknowledging the existence of criminal acts within the police force was lauded by many here who say that more action should be taken.
“All the crook officers should e arrested because I will never see my child and even if they decide to pay me that will not bring back my child,”
The SSU unit of the DCI that was tasked with curbing crime that had become a problem in major urban areas, now standing disbanded on allegations of murder.
“I was shocked to hear the president admit something like that and you must recognize during that time he was in government too. He should have said something then, we could have fought those people then because we always protested saying this thing was happening in our community,” said Lucy Wanjiru.
Wanjiru, whose husband was gunned down in Mathare in 2017 at the height of political campaigns, says that she knows the officer who shot Chris Maina in cold blood in a corridor. The long search for justice has been slow and painful.
“Mathare Social Justice tried to go to the police station to get an OB to report the murder of Maina,..they were denied the opportunity and intact one of the social justice activists were assaulted,”
The police station is the first such place where human rights defenders note, much should be done. Over time the investigations by IPOA and IAU have slowed down but not stopped the killings completely.
“Some police stations such as Huruma have changed and infact we work with police to deal with some of these cases, however, one of the worst police stations is Pangani,” said Gathuku Gachuhi, Coordinator MSJC.
“People are being abducted by persons who are described as police, they come with Probox vehicles, even though that was banned. And then you disappear in totality. You can only be declared as a missing person, we don’t have statistics to declare you dead, you are a victim of the state or not,” said Javan Owala, official MSJC.
As part of the larger human rights community, the missing voices coalition has independently documented the killing of 145 people in 2019, 168 in 2020, 219 in 2021, and 107 this year.
While the Interior CS nominee, did not quite articulately give directions on what will be his plan to deal with the matter of extrajudicial killings, he has noted that mental health issues that have led to police officers killing others and themselves will be crucial to deal with.
“These incidents are caused by the low morale, remuneration, and poor working conditions for police officers vis a vis the risk they undertake in the service of the nation,” said Interior CS Nominee Prof Kithure Kindiki.
Even with his best-laid plans for the police service, families affected say that they want the state to arrest officers involved, in a bid to get closure for their pain.
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