A thread re police extra-judicial execution.
Over the years the Kenya Police has acquired a dubious distinction of being the source of insecurity instead of providing security. In many instance, to many Kenyan’s the police represent a clear, and imminent danger to the lives.
Over the years the Kenya Police has acquired a dubious distinction of being the source of insecurity instead of providing security. In many instance, to many Kenyan’s the police represent a clear, and imminent danger to the lives.
But the transformation from the source of security into a bastion of insecurity didn’t occur overnight, and neither did it come as a surprise; it was an inevitable outcome of multiple factors.
Before the 2010 constitution, the police was at the beck and call of the executive, which used it as a tool of coercion. The executive used the police however deemed fit to meet its political ends.
As a result, in many instances when confronted by a new security situation, the executive’s default setting was to set up a ‘special’ police unit to address the situation.
In order to stem the runaway carjacking and bank robberies, in 1995, the government formed a new police unit called the Flying Squad.
The Flying Squad was given the express authority to shoot any suspect on sight without due process. This showed a spike in the number of extrajudicial killings, mostly by the police.
Because of the huge latitude the group enjoyed, the unit committed egregious human rights violations; they executed several innocent people in cold blood.
But their gung-ho attitude instead of being seen as pernicious, it was celebrated by the police command as demonstration the unit was making significant progress in the fight against crime.
The late 1980s and 1990’s saw deep economic problems, shrinking political space for dissent and increasing insecurity saw the emergence of criminal extortionist criminal gangs.
These gangs established their ‘sphere of influence’, mostly in slum areas, where the state’s presence was negligible. To engender loyalty from the community and enhance their legitimacy, these groups provided security for token fee.
To exert their superiority, from time to time, these groups engage each other over ‘territories’ and business interests. One of such group is the Mungiki. Others were the Taliban, the Kosovo boys, the Baghdad boys, Chinkororo, the Kalenjin Warriors and Mungiki.
In 2002, the Kenyan government prohibited 18 these groups. In 2007, the establishment Special Police Unit called Kwekwe that was tasked primarily with hunting down the Mungiki members also followed this.
According to the @HakiKNCHR “extra-judicial executions and other brutal acts of extreme cruelty have been perpetrated by the Police against so-called Mungiki adherents and that these acts may have been committed pursuant to official policy sanctioned by the political leadership"
Kenya has been on the cross-hair of the transnational jihadi movement. In the past, the fact that Kenya was seen as being firmly in the Western sphere of influence made Kenya a target.
But most of the targets including the 1998 US embassy attack were directed at the Western interest.
Part of the crackdown was extensive extra-judicial killings of Muslim preachers especially in the coastal city of Mombasa. The pattern in all of these killings is the preachers are gunned down mostly in broad daylight. The government and especially the police deny any role.
We have plenty of reports and media expose re #extrajudicialkillingske interactive.aljazeera.com/aje/kenyadeath…
Enforced disappearance and extrajudicial executions are a systemic problem within Kenya’s criminal justice system. They are enabled by a weak legal framework and absence of political will to ensure accountability. #extrajudicialkillingske
.An independent and impartial Judicial commission of inquiry should be established to determine both individual and command responsibility for cases enforced disappearance and #extrajudicialexecutionske
