Victims of police brutality still seeking elusive justice

• Some people still have bullets lodged in their bodies three years after violence

She regained consciousness nearly two weeks later in hospital. She is now unable to eat solid food, cannot work, or afford to pay for an operation that would help ease much of her disability.

Three years after the anarchy, Steve Otieno, 23, still has a bullet lodged in his body. A visit with a friend to the petrol station was not, according to him, supposed to expose him to any danger.

“We heard people shouting as they came in our direction. There was a confrontation between police and the public. The petrol station is located opposite the police station and, apparently, the people wanted some prisoners to be released,” said Steve.

The police opened fire. In the melee, Steve recalls falling down, with no clue about what had hit him.

“My left leg was broken, and my friend carried me to the police station to seek help, but he was forced to flee after a gun was pointed at him.”

Jeremiah Magunga from Vihiga said he knew the policeman from Vihiga police station who shot his 15-year-old son at Majengo market. The policeman still enjoys his freedom and job.

Waki hearings

“Other officers told us that the policeman died in an accident, yet we know that he was transferred to Central Province and occasionally comes around here,” said Mr Magunga.

During the Justice Philip Waki hearings, Dr Margaret Oduor, a pathologist based at the Kisumu Provincial General Hospital, testified that 56 bodies and eight body parts were taken to the hospital. Fifty of the bodies had indications on the cause of death as gun shot wounds.

According to Dr Oduor, 53 per cent of the casualties had been shot from behind, indicating that police shot people who were running away, and not with the aim of immobilise but with the purpose of killing and maiming.

Three of the dead were under the age of 14 years (one of them a 10-year-old girl) and three were female. One of the children, a 12-year-old boy, was shot twice in the back. Further, a 45-year-old woman was shot and killed in her home just outside the town’s central business district.

“The commission could find no legal or operational basis for justifying the shooting of civilians from behind at any time, given the circumstances presented to it,” read part of the Waki report.

In Vihiga, 18-year-old Wycliffe Munyesu was shot on the left side of the back while on his way to visit his elder sister in Majengo.

“I was unconscious and found myself in Mbale district hospital. I was later told that the bullet was removed but after two months, my chest started swelling,” he said.

Mr Ndung’u Wainaina, the executive director of the International Centre for Policy and Conflict, said in the light of the magnitude of the atrocities, the International Criminal Court alone could not deal with the problems.