Police need to put the uniform aside and act on humanity

By Njura Ivy

Email: ivynjura9@gmail.com

Growing up, we used to live across the fence of the Lake Nakuru National Park. The one very stun warning I used to hear from the game wardens who also lived in the neighbourhood was that the worst time to rattle a buffalo is when it is injured. This might seem impertinent to the headline of this article, but it is the basis of everything. The current pattern of police brutality-related murders- moreso in the context of Covid-19- is the wound and the society is the buffalo.

I start with the most recent case of the Kianjokoma brothers, may their souls rest in peace, is an epitome of police brutality and abuse of power. The two brothers from Embu County died after being arrested and allegedly tortured by the police for flouting curfew regulations. As an active social media user, the pictures on the internet globally are depressing. It is already terrible! 

I am wondering whether at police training colleges, the first lesson is how to be inhuman, but truth be told, the hideous acts are not anything close to the expectations of the men and women in uniform. A father is the symbol of security at home; but if he turns out to be the reason of insecurity, how much of a home is that? When a young person is in danger, they run away instead of running to the police for help. This begs the question- what is the essence of the police unit in the first place?

Police have been posturing to paint a good picture of how helpful they are, let them tell that to the mother of the 13-year-old Yassin Hussein Moyo, who was killed by a ‘stray bullet’ in Githurai, Nairobi as police shot at a balcony where he was standing, while they were enforcing a curfew in March 2020.  Many other cases involving police brutality in the enforcement of the curfew cannot be justified by law or any other standards. There is no number of apologies or money that can replace the lost lives or heal their families’ hearts. Losing, not one but two children in evitable situations is not a memory that will just go away because we asked for forgiveness.

We may forgive, but we shall never forget. And the best way not to forget is to ensure the rogue police elements are held accountable as the law dictates.   While the officers, who were involved in the Kianjokoma incident are in the judicial process, this should happen in all cases where police have been accused of excessive use of force, especially in the enforcement of the curfew since March, 2020. The right to life is sacrosanct as defined by the Constitution of Kenya, the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights as well as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. In particular, I refer to the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights’ Guidelines on the Conditions of Arrest, Police Custody and Pre-Trial Detention in Africa.  Any use of force, even in the state of emergency has to be guided by the applicable national, regional and international law. This is how we can hold everyone – including law enforcement agencies – accountable and end the impunity.

Brutality is not and will not be a solution to anything in fact, it will erode further public trust in the police – which will be counterproductive in a country where collaboration between security agencies and the public in vital.

Njura Ivy is a second-year Journalism student at Maseno University.