Killings by the police are no longer news

Jacob Juma will be buried in Bungoma on Saturday, nine days after his brutal killing in Nairobi. His body may be laid to rest but his family and friends will not rest until his assassins are brought to justice. 

The media have gone to extraordinary lengths to investigate his killing and provide details of his business and political ventures. In death he has become a household name while politicians and pundits have identified government agents as the chief suspects in his assassination.

While this was all happening, the Independent Medico Legal Unit (IMLU) exposed another set of government agents, the Kenya Police Service, responsible for the summary execution of eight young men in the informal settlement of Mukuru kwa Reuben.

You probably missed the story as editors didn’t give it prominence so it disappeared from the news channels and social media after 24 hours.

Police killings are no longer news and certainly never get the attention that Jacob Juma’s murder has. IMLU released pathology reports confirming that the men were all shot at close range, in the back and in a kneeling or lying position.

Few were surprised at IMLU’s report and no one at all was outraged. The lives of suspects and the poor don’t matter. Police spokesman Charles Owino didn’t even bother to respond, obviously more focused on the protests at IEBC.

The political class never uttered a word of protest. Media houses took the lazy option of feeding the public’s curiosity about Jacob Juma but never even bothered to name the Mukuru Eight; unworthy of recognition even in death.

126 POLICE KILLINGS

IMLU, however, not only named them but gave their parents a forum to demand justice for their children who were as young as 15, the oldest being 26.

IMLU has detailed 534 deaths from police bullets since 2013. One suspects that this is only a fraction of the real figure. Last year, they recorded 126 police killings, 97 of which were summary executions.

In the first four months of 2016, police killed another 64, 85 percent of whom were executed. Those preliminary statistics indicate that extra-judicial killings are on the rise. That makes a mockery of the propaganda about a reformed police service.

Article 26 of the Constitution states that everyone has the right to life, and that includes suspects, the poor, prostitutes, refugees, the opposition and everyone else that the government and the public deem undesirables.

All life is sacred, the Mukuru eight just as much as Jacob Juma. We dwell on the political assassinations and quickly forget extra-judicial killings. We miss the connection. Whether the state eliminates its political opponents or gives its security agents a carte blanche to execute any petty criminal suspect, the effect on society is the same.

We end up living in a lawless society where life is cheap and brute force reigns. It is only IMLU and the Independent Police Oversight Authority (IPOA) who remain as lone voices upholding the rule of law.

The public don’t mind suspects being mowed down — simplistic solutions concealing a failed security machinery. How many more have to be executed before we acknowledge that state agents and death squads act outside the law with impunity?

[email protected] @GabrielDolan1