Human Rights

Why Kenya's police killFrustrated with the justice system, officers take matters into their own hands, killing hundreds without objection from the state
Frustrated with the justice system, officers take matters into their own hands, killing hundreds without objection from the state
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The UN's Philip Alston said the scale of police killings in Kenya was the worst he had ever encountered. More than 500 young people have been killed by police in Kenya in the last few years, chiefly by squads specifically set up for this mission.

Alston, a UN special rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, called for the sacking of the country's police commissioner, Major General Hussein Ali, and the attorney general, Amos Wako.

But it really was not news. The Kenyan public has long complained that the police engage in extrajudicial killings. It is well known, for instance, that anyone wishing for an early death at the muzzle of a gun need only be tagged as belonging to the dreaded Mungiki group or the Mt Elgon's Sabaot Land Defence Force. But their objections were always met by either deafening silence or denial from the government.

The Mungiki group is an outlawed association of youth, mainly from the central region of the country. The members are known to engage in strict oathing ceremonies, are highly secretive and protective of their own and are known to be ruthless to those who betray them or go against their dictates. Its hallmarks were the circumcision of women and the sniffing of tobacco, which used to be practised as traditional Kikuyu customs. But the group soon began to terrorise Kenyans, extorting money from businesses and in some towns forcibly circumcising women. In some parts of Kenya, women could not go out wearing jeans or tight trousers. They were stripped naked.

To deal with this group, the government proscribed it and the police started arresting the members. But they could not uphold the charges and keep them locked away in jails. The members retaliated by beheading anyone whom they suspected of betraying them to the police. Hundreds of youths started disappearing from their homes, plucked out in the dead of night and executed. In some villages in central Kenya, hundreds of young men have disappeared. It is suspected that they were executed.

If the police had any issues with you, all they needed to do was to label you a "Mungiki member" or a "notorious and badly wanted criminal". And they always had the blessings of their seniors.

The argument by some police officers I have talked to sounds only distantly logical, and a touch weird. They say that since the courts have been unable to deal with suspects, always setting them free on technicalities, and because some suspects are able to bribe their way out of jail anyway, the police have been left no option than to deal with the suspects in their own way. Sometimes the police say they know who the country's most notorious criminals are but somehow they always seem to get out of jail when they bust them. And then they come for them.

"Why do I have to take you to court while I know you are a robber, and indeed have killed police officers, knowing fully well that you will certainly come out and bump me off?" one police officer asked me.

Underlining all this is the utter failure of the judicial system to deal with crime. This has contributed to the bizarre response that police seem to have adopted. The courts, they argue, would not help them stamp out proscribed and dangerous organisations, so they have to do it themselves. And besides, when crime escalates, it is the police who are blamed. To appear to be working, they seem to resort to summary executions.

Police are also highly protective of their own. A month ago, an officer allegedly shot the son of a politician after a quarrel over a woman in a bar. Then he boldly reported that he had shot a "Mungiki" member and "a notorious criminal".

He could have got away with it – had the young man been an ordinary Kenyan. The case attracted media attention and the officer was promptly arrested. There are unconfirmed reports that the officer may have killed others but had got off scot-free because his colleagues had protected him.

Some officers have always known that when they get caught up in this kind of mess, their colleagues and seniors will protect them by either having them transferred from their stations or hushing up the cases. After all, who prepares the charge sheets for the courts? Are they not the same police officers? How are they then expected to set themselves against their own?

Besides, those whose loved ones have disappeared (or were executed) are expected to make those reports at the police stations. In the absence of a police watchdog, the police know they can cover up their colleagues' crimes. In fact, very few police officers accused of extrajudicial killings have ever been prosecuted. The police are therefore their own policemen and women.

Characteristically, the government has always denied the existence of police killer squads. When the report was made public, the government spokesman, Alfred Mutua, denounced it, saying that Alston, who had been invited by the government to help dig out the truth about the killings, had exceeded his mandate. It is this kind of denial that has given the police the impetus to act with the impunity they now seem to enjoy.