Pressure mounts for security chiefs to step down over killings

Pallbearers put the casket carrying the body of slain lawyer Willie Kimani into a hearse after a requiem mass held in Consolata Shrine, Nairobi, on July 8, 2016. Law Society of Kenya President Isaac Okero said CS Nkaissery should take personal responsibility for the killings. PHOTO | JEFF ANGOTE | NATION MEDIA GROUP

What you need to know:

  • Makueni Senator Mutula Kilonzo Jr, who attended the service, said Mr Nkaissery was to blame for the rot in the police force.
  • Mr Nkaissery has portrayed the picture of a no-nonsense CS, with many arguing that he was poached from the Opposition because of his military experience.
  • The vetting of police by the National Police Service Commission is a constitutional requirement aimed at weeding out the corrupt, violent, and incompetent members from the force.

The political and command leadership of the Kenya Police Service was under pressure to resign Friday over extrajudicial executions of civilians.

Lawyers, politicians and human rights defenders said Interior Cabinet Secretary Joseph Nkaissery, Inspector-General of Police Joseph Boinnet as well as the Deputy IG in charge of the Administration Police, Mr Samuel Arachi, should be forced out of office.

They were speaking at the requiem Mass for human rights lawyer Willie Kimani, his client, Mr Josephat Mwenda, and taxi driver Joseph Muiruri, who were tortured and killed by police last month.

Mr Nkaissery, they said, has a “habit of making comments that might be construed to mean that it is okay for the police to be brutal and violent with civilians”.

The CS has also dismissed police vetting as a waste of time.

Makueni Senator Mutula Kilonzo Jr, who attended the service, said Mr Nkaissery was to blame for the rot in the police force.

“Gen Nkaissery has given the impression that it is okay to use force and teargas, and that it’s okay for police to be brutal and this has created impunity,” said Mr Kilonzo.

“That impunity has now allowed police to arrest people, keep them in cells, not record it, and then kill them. That is impunity! And I am afraid that this is not the end. By the end of this, you will discover that there is more to this than meets the eye.”

Ms Patricia Nyaundi, of the Kenya National Commission on Human Rights, said: “When an Interior minister tells his juniors that police cannot be oversighted by a civilian, what is he telling them? The juniors will think they are above the law, even think it is okay to be brutal.”

The Administration Police unit was singled out for severe criticism.

“We have received a lot of information that has led us to believe that the AP is not being run fully in accordance with the law. We are calling for the resignation of Mr Arachi and a total reform of the tree and trunk of the AP,” said Mr Charles Kanjama, who is representing the Law Society of Kenya in the murder trial of the officers.

INCOMPETENT BOSS
The four, who are in police custody, have been charged over the killings.

Speaking at the Mass at the Consolata Shrine at Westlands, Nairobi on Friday, Law Society of Kenya President Isaac Okero said the minister should take personal responsibility for the killings.

Narc-Kenya leader Martha Karua said Mr Nkaissery was watching over a police force that had moved from being protectors of the law to breakers of the law.

“Loose talk is not new to this administration. The silence of Nkaissery and the President on this is bad. Nkaissery should address the issue of police substituting arrests with executions,” said Ms Karua.

But in response, a spokesman said Mr Nkaissery’s critics were being unfair to him, arguing that he was the “wrong antelope” to chase at the moment.

“For one to accuse the CS of supporting police brutality is only politicising the matter that is now being investigated by the authorities. They are being unfair to him,” Interior Ministry spokesman Mwenda Njoka said.

In fact, Mr Njoka added, the CS had met top police officers following the killings and ordered that “no stone be left unturned”.

Mr Nkaissery has portrayed the picture of a no-nonsense CS, with many arguing that he was poached from the Opposition because of his military experience.

Cord has accused him of treating Kenyans as if they were in “military barracks”. The CS has not helped with the criticism whenever he speaks, most recently during anti-electoral commission protests.

“Let them be warned that I have enough teargas – which I will not run short of soon – to use in smoking them out of the IEBC offices if they attempt to force themselves there,” Mr Nkaissery was quoted saying on May 16.

This week, the Tiaty MP Asmam Kamama-led National Assembly security committee summoned Mr Nkaissery to explain what they said were rising deaths of Kenyans at the hands of police.

“Reports we have received show that 71 people have been killed by police this year,” Mr Kamama said, and Mr Nkaissery should report to them in two weeks.

Mr Nkaissery has also opposed civilian oversight of the police as stipulated in the Constitution.

He has described the vetting of police officers, which is aimed at weeding out officers who are unfit to serve, as a waste of time.

“We cannot have civilians commanding uniformed people. It cannot happen, it has never happened anywhere in the world. It is only the activists and civil society who brought this law and it is what is affecting the command structure,” he was quoted as saying a few days after he took office.

DEFENDER OF THE 'WEAK'
The vetting of police by the National Police Service Commission is a constitutional requirement aimed at weeding out the corrupt, violent, and incompetent members from the force.

Ms Nyaundi said Mr Nkaissery’s disdain for civilian oversight was bad for the police. But, Mr Njoka said Mr Nkaissery’s words on police vetting were taken out of context.

“What he meant to say was that the law has to be changed so that a police officer is not interviewed by people who may not even understand the structure. It is not a balanced, fair situation,” said Mr Njoka.

At the Mass, Mr Kimani, who will be buried today in Kabete, Kiambu County, was eulogised as fierce defender of justice.

Present was US Ambassador Robert Godec and his Swedish counterpart, Mr Johan Borgstam.

Mr Gary Haugen, the chief executive of the International Justice Mission, where Mr Kimani worked, read a moving tribute in which he described him as a true defender of justice.

“He believed so deeply in his conviction for justice for all that he died for them. He was willing to place his very body between violent men and the vulnerable poor,” said Mr Haugen, who vowed not to stop until the killers of the three men are punished.

The bodies of Mr Kimani, Mr Mwenda and Mr Muiruri were found in Ol Donyo Sabuk River, nine days after they were abducted on June 22, while leaving Mavoko Law Courts in Machakos County.

Mr Kimani was representing Mr Mwenda, a boda boda rider, who had accused a policeman of shooting him in the hand, while Mr Muiruri was a taxi driver.

Mr Muiruri will also be buried today in Nyandarua County, while Mr Mwenda’s burial will be on Monday in Tharaka Nithi County.