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1,300 killed by Kenyan police in 2020, say human rights lobbies
Documented figures put the second as the second deadliest after 2007
In Summary
•Police spokesman Charles Owino maintains the police did nothing wrong and that any mistakes attributable to them were due to common human error.
More than 1,300 people have died in the hands of the police in 2020, reports by human rights lobbies documenting extrajudicial killings show.
A data base maintained by Missing Voices, a website mounted by human rights entities including Kenya Human Rights Commission and International Justice Mission to document case of extrajudicial killings, show 2020 has been the second deadliest after 2007.
It ranks far higher that 2019 when 144 people got killed by the police. Cumulatively, 742 people have been killed or disappeared without a trace, acts attributable to police conduct, the website shows.
Direct police shooting accounted for 59 per cent of the deaths. Battering, torture and teargassing accounted for the other deaths.
The onset of the coronavirus pandemic with the attendant containment measures enforced by the police saw many of such deaths. The measures included curfews, partial lockdowns of Nairobi and the three Coastal counties of Mombasa, Kilifi and Kwale.
For example, as of June 15 people had died at the hands of the police as they enforced the dust-to-dawn curfew. Police watchdog the Independent Policing Oversight Authority said in a statement in June that it had received 87 complaints against police since they started enforcing the curfew and heightened security measures.
The complaints included deaths, shootings, harassment, assaults, robbery, inhuman treatment and sexual assault, the authority said.
“After preliminary investigations, 15 deaths and 31 incidents where victims sustained injuries have directly been linked to actions of police officers during the curfew enforcement,” Ipoa said in a statement.
Police Spokesman Charles Owino maintains the police did nothing wrong and that any mistakes attributable to them were due to common human error.
Police officers do their job under very tough circumstances and we only owe them our thanks, he said.
The wrong ones are held personally responsible, Owino added.
Yassin Hussein Moyo, 13, is part of the statistics. He was shot by police on March 31, only 4 days after the police commenced the curfew enforcement operation.
He was playing in his parent’s balcony in Mathare area. Reports at the time indicated that the police officer Dancun Ndiema had shot in the air to scare people into their homes as he enforced the curfew.
Moyo’s mother Khadija Abdullahi Hussein told the media that after she heard the shot, she told her children to lie down shortly before Moyo complained of being hit by the bullet in the stomach.
“After a few minutes I heard gunshots, I told the kids to lie down. I noticed that Yasin had fallen off the chair where he was standing.”
In a fainting voice, Moyo would tell her; “Mama I've been shot.”
Police officer Ndiema was later arraigned and charged with ******. He denied the charges.
Dennis Lusava is the latest victim. He was arrested by police in October allegedly for not wearing a mask. His decomposing body would be found at the bank of river Nzoia a few days later. Post-mortem conducted by state pathologist Dickson Muchana found that the 31-year-old was tortured using blunt objects.
“The deceased was tortured to death. There were no indications that he drowned in the river. He was assaulted with a blunt object, resulting in severe injuries on his neck, forehead, occipital area, backbone and the left upper quadrant,” Muchana said in a report.
Enraged
All accusing fingers have been trained towards police officers who are said to have bludgeoned him to death while he was detained at Mbururu police station in Lugari constituency.
Enraged locals set the police station on fire.
The multiple reports and optics of police violence in enforcing the curfew, the public anger was palpable, with public demonstrations organised. Human rights groups such as Amnesty International, ICJ and Human Rights Watch roundly condemned the alleged conduct of the police.
“The police, without apparent justification, shot and beat people at markets or returning home from work, even before the start of the curfew. Police have also broken into homes and shops, extorted money from residents or looted food in locations across the country,” Human Rights Watch said in its April 22 report.
“It is shocking that people are losing their lives and livelihoods while supposedly being protected from infection,” Otsieno Namwaya, senior Africa researcher at Human Rights Watch said.
“Police brutality isn’t just unlawful; it is also counterproductive in fighting the spread of the virus,” he added.
The general public anger culminated in a public protest in Nairobi organised by civil society groups demanding that culpable officers be held accountable.
Robina Otieno, a grassroot activist in Mathare said the police’s aggressiveness exposed more people to the virus yet their action was meant to cushion them from the pandemic.
“When they [police] come in the slums, their appetite is just to harass, extort, beat and ****,” Otieno told the Star, giving the [in]famous Mathare crime buster Ahmed Rashid as example.
President Uhuru Kenyatta later apologised generally for the conduct of the police.
Documented figures put the second as the second deadliest after 2007
In Summary
•Police spokesman Charles Owino maintains the police did nothing wrong and that any mistakes attributable to them were due to common human error.
More than 1,300 people have died in the hands of the police in 2020, reports by human rights lobbies documenting extrajudicial killings show.
A data base maintained by Missing Voices, a website mounted by human rights entities including Kenya Human Rights Commission and International Justice Mission to document case of extrajudicial killings, show 2020 has been the second deadliest after 2007.
It ranks far higher that 2019 when 144 people got killed by the police. Cumulatively, 742 people have been killed or disappeared without a trace, acts attributable to police conduct, the website shows.
Direct police shooting accounted for 59 per cent of the deaths. Battering, torture and teargassing accounted for the other deaths.
The onset of the coronavirus pandemic with the attendant containment measures enforced by the police saw many of such deaths. The measures included curfews, partial lockdowns of Nairobi and the three Coastal counties of Mombasa, Kilifi and Kwale.
For example, as of June 15 people had died at the hands of the police as they enforced the dust-to-dawn curfew. Police watchdog the Independent Policing Oversight Authority said in a statement in June that it had received 87 complaints against police since they started enforcing the curfew and heightened security measures.
The complaints included deaths, shootings, harassment, assaults, robbery, inhuman treatment and sexual assault, the authority said.
“After preliminary investigations, 15 deaths and 31 incidents where victims sustained injuries have directly been linked to actions of police officers during the curfew enforcement,” Ipoa said in a statement.
Police Spokesman Charles Owino maintains the police did nothing wrong and that any mistakes attributable to them were due to common human error.
Police officers do their job under very tough circumstances and we only owe them our thanks, he said.
The wrong ones are held personally responsible, Owino added.
Yassin Hussein Moyo, 13, is part of the statistics. He was shot by police on March 31, only 4 days after the police commenced the curfew enforcement operation.
He was playing in his parent’s balcony in Mathare area. Reports at the time indicated that the police officer Dancun Ndiema had shot in the air to scare people into their homes as he enforced the curfew.
Moyo’s mother Khadija Abdullahi Hussein told the media that after she heard the shot, she told her children to lie down shortly before Moyo complained of being hit by the bullet in the stomach.
“After a few minutes I heard gunshots, I told the kids to lie down. I noticed that Yasin had fallen off the chair where he was standing.”
In a fainting voice, Moyo would tell her; “Mama I've been shot.”
Police officer Ndiema was later arraigned and charged with ******. He denied the charges.
Dennis Lusava is the latest victim. He was arrested by police in October allegedly for not wearing a mask. His decomposing body would be found at the bank of river Nzoia a few days later. Post-mortem conducted by state pathologist Dickson Muchana found that the 31-year-old was tortured using blunt objects.
“The deceased was tortured to death. There were no indications that he drowned in the river. He was assaulted with a blunt object, resulting in severe injuries on his neck, forehead, occipital area, backbone and the left upper quadrant,” Muchana said in a report.
Enraged
All accusing fingers have been trained towards police officers who are said to have bludgeoned him to death while he was detained at Mbururu police station in Lugari constituency.
Enraged locals set the police station on fire.
The multiple reports and optics of police violence in enforcing the curfew, the public anger was palpable, with public demonstrations organised. Human rights groups such as Amnesty International, ICJ and Human Rights Watch roundly condemned the alleged conduct of the police.
“The police, without apparent justification, shot and beat people at markets or returning home from work, even before the start of the curfew. Police have also broken into homes and shops, extorted money from residents or looted food in locations across the country,” Human Rights Watch said in its April 22 report.
“It is shocking that people are losing their lives and livelihoods while supposedly being protected from infection,” Otsieno Namwaya, senior Africa researcher at Human Rights Watch said.
“Police brutality isn’t just unlawful; it is also counterproductive in fighting the spread of the virus,” he added.
The general public anger culminated in a public protest in Nairobi organised by civil society groups demanding that culpable officers be held accountable.
Robina Otieno, a grassroot activist in Mathare said the police’s aggressiveness exposed more people to the virus yet their action was meant to cushion them from the pandemic.
“When they [police] come in the slums, their appetite is just to harass, extort, beat and ****,” Otieno told the Star, giving the [in]famous Mathare crime buster Ahmed Rashid as example.
President Uhuru Kenyatta later apologised generally for the conduct of the police.