Perhaps Nkaissery needs reminding about what Kenyans expect him to do
Joseph ole Nkaissery, the Cabinet Secretary for the Ministry of Interior and Coordination of National Government, at press conference at Harambee House in Nairobi on October 4, 2016 in which he defended the police against claims of extrajudicial killings. PHOTO | EVANS HABIL | NATION MEDIA GROUP
What you need to know:
- Officers reported to have shot and killed unarmed Kenyans in the streets or in the slums – regardless of their alleged crimes – broke the law.
- They do not deserve to serve in a security agency entrusted with the job of protecting lives and property.
Joseph Nkaissery, the Interior Cabinet Secretary, has no qualms aggravating the pain of families mourning their beloved ones who met their deaths at the hands of a police force gone rogue.
Watching him on television the other day defending the police against accusations of a fresh round of extrajudicial killings in a Nation report, you got the impression that the man has a rather twisted understanding of his role at the Security docket.
Perhaps Mr Nkaissery needs reminding that Kenyans expect him to ensure that the police enforce the law, not to break it.
The officers reported to have shot and killed unarmed Kenyans in the streets or in the slums – regardless of their alleged crimes – broke the law and they do not deserve to serve in a security agency entrusted with the job of protecting lives and property.
And it is not acceptable that every time police bosses in this country are confronted with a report of extrajudicial killings they deny or blame it on “a few rotten apples”.
ALSTON REPORT
They said that about the Alston report back in 2009, they have been saying the same about the regular reports released by human rights organisations, and they are saying it now about the Nation report.
If it were true that only “a few rotten apples” were responsible for the rogue policing, they would surely have been plucked out by now.
The fact that extrajudicial killings haven’t ceased suggests that the force teems with death squads and that impunity reigns in law enforcement.
Unfortunately, some desperate wananchi, especially in slum neighbourhoods, have been made to believe there is no better way of fighting crime.
Folks from these areas will regale you with tales about the heroic officer dressed in a Maasai shuka who moves around issuing notices to families of young men suspected to be criminals – offering them bus fare to their rural homes in some instances – and returns to shoot at the expiry of the notices.
IN KISUMU
Residents of Kondele in Kisumu once took to the streets to protest the transfer of an officer reputed for taming crime in their neighbourhood by executing suspects.
The illegality aside, the glorification of this impunity glosses over the chilling reality that many innocent Kenyans end up getting killed by rogue police.
Footage of an NTV report has this young woman in Mathare narrating how three young men were shot dead before her very eyes. One of them was admittedly a criminal. Two of them eked out an honest living. But when the police came that day, the three of them were all felled. She believes the officers only spared her life because of her gender. Only hours after the bully minister called a press conference to dismiss the Nation report, some police officers shot dead two women selling tomatoes by the roadside in Kisii on Thursday.
It was another cruel reminder of extrajudicial killings by the Kenyan police.
Otieno Otieno is the chief subeditor of the Business Daily.
