ANB-BIA SUPPLEMENT

ISSUE/EDITION Nr 325 - 01/06/1997

CONTENTS | ANB-BIA HOMEPAGE

Kenya

The Police Death Squad

by James Pod, Kenya, 1 April 1997

THEME = VIOLENCE

INTRODUCTION -- Recently, there has been a public outcry over the frequent cases of extra judicial killings by the police.
There is increasing concern about the number of "suspects" and "wanted criminals" killed by the police,
when indeed, the only version of the killings come from the police themselves

Crime has been increasing in Kenya lately, and there has been a proliferation of armed gangs prepared to kill in order to make their getaway proliferate. The police justify their actions as the only way to end this lawlessness.

Police arguments

Last year, after police had shot dead two people on Nairobi's River Road area, the senior officer of the Central Police at that time told newsmen that "...these two people were seen walking around looking suspiciously". But is this sufficient reason to kill these people? Were they a threat to the police?

On 15 February 1996, unknown robbers raided Habib Bank in Nairobi, killed a guard and escaped by car with shs. 200,000. The police, reinforced by a helicopter, pursued the robbers and shot dead Evans Luvusi, who was going around his employer's compound searching for a chicken that had strayed. This took place in Limuru, several kilometres away.

The police insisted he was one of the robbers. Relatives and friends said he was innocent. There was an outcry over the incident and four days later, Attorney-General Amos Wako called a press conference in which he asked the Criminal Investigation Department to speed up their inquiries into the killing.

In some cases, the police are said to be accomplices in crimes in which innocent people have been killed, and that suspects who might reveal the identity of the real killers, are suitably "disposed of".

Public opinion

Human rights workers say that innocent Kenyans are being killed in the police's spirited effort to flush out criminals. They say that the police have taken the law into their hands..."the police have become arrestors, investigators, prosecutors, the court and the hangman".

It's over a year, now, since Luvusi was killed, and the public had tended to become rather blasé about this and similar incidents. But when three university students joined the list of victims last December, Kenyans openly accepted the fact that the police could be exceeding their powers.

Attorney-General Amos Wako says that the police can use arms only when it is strictly necessary, and due care must be taken that there is a genuine necessity. The law states categorically that the police can only use firearms when there is danger to their lives or in order to prevent criminals from escaping.

However since the former Minister for Constitutional Affairs, Charles Njonjo, adopted a "shoot to kill" policy sixteen years ago, the Kenyan police have become trigger-happy and have had a field-day killing those they describe as suspects.

On March 14, 1997, the Standard published a telephone interview with a man known popularly as "Rasta", who was described by the police as a wanted criminal with a large cash reward on his head. Rasta was reported as saying that he was only declared to be a "wanted criminal" criminal after he had disagreed with a highly placed police officer for whom he had been working. Rasta's particular "work" was to change engine numbers, registration numbers and the colour of motor vehicles which the officer brought to him from unknown sources.

In the interview, Rasta claimed that he had threatened to report the officer to his superiors when he refused to pay him his dues. The officer then swore to "finish him off".

Statistics

There are statistics available concerning the number of extra judicial killings by the police. In 1994 there were 45 reported cases. In 1995 there were 120 reported cases. And what about recent killings? The Daily Nation has come up with the following cases which occurred between 14 December 1996 and 14 February 1997.

==> 1996
- 17 December: Police shoot dead, Festo Etaba Okongo, an Egerton University student, during riots on campus.
- 18 December: Two Kenyan University students, are shot dead by police during a riot on campus, to protest the 17 December killing at Egerton.
- 20 December: Two suspected gangsters are gunned down in Kikuyu.
- 23 December: Police kill four suspects in the city.

==> 1997
- 5 January: Four gangsters suspected of raping an elderly woman in Kiambu, are shot dead by police.
- 6 January: A robbery suspect is gunned down in Nairobi's River Road Area.
- 10 January: City police kill three suspects in Nairobi's Industrial area.
- 14 January: Elizabeth Wamalwa is killed in a crossfire between police and armed gangsters.
- 15 January: Police shoot dead a suspect in a Nairobi street.
- 22 January: A Catholic missionary and a watchman are shot dead by two Administration policemen.
- 24 January: A police inspector, suspected of being a robber is shot dead by security officers in Machakos.
- 2 February: An Administration policeman kills a suspect in Kakamega.
- 3 February: Two suspected robbers are killed by police in Kikuyu Kiambu district.
- 5 February: A suspect is gunned down by police in Nyali, Mombasa.
- 14 February: N'gan'ga Kabui dies in Elburgon after being shot by police who mistook him for a robber.

These facts speak for themselves. Our police are far too trigger- happy and should be making genuine efforts to administer the law, and protect property and human lives.

END

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