Missing Voices, a group of organisations highlighting extrajudicial murders, has singled out Pangani Police Station over the high cases of police killings in Kenya.
In its annual report dubbed Delayed Justice released on Thursday, April 27, Missing Voices documented 30 cases of police killings that are reportedly linked to Pangani Police Station.
According to the human rights activists, in every month of the year 2021, save for June, officers from Pangani were accused of murder.
“In Mathare, Pangani police are largely known as the enemy of the people. How can the police protect us when they are killing our young men, beating our women, and taking our hard-earned money from us?
"They have caused serious harm to our community. Our people are living in fear because of their brutality and violence,” a representative from Mathare Social Justice Center lamented.
One case highlighted in the report was an April 2017 viral video of a police officer attached to Pangani Police Station shooting and killing two unarmed men in broad daylight in Eastleigh.
Missing Voices added that in the same year, the cop and another from the same station picked up a victim, Christopher Maina from his workplace and executed him in broad daylight in Mlango Kubwa area.
“One of the witnesses was killed shortly after giving a statement to the Independent Policing Oversight Authority (IPOA),” Missing Voices noted.
“On March 18, 2022, another video spread widely showing officers from Pangani Police Station executing two individuals who were lying on the ground and did not pose an immediate threat to the officers,” the report added.
This case sparked a nationwide uproar and was covered widely by the media. According to Missing Voices, the police report stated the victims were suspected criminals who were fatally injured during a shoot-out with the officers.
“Contrastingly, the video shows no sign of a shoot-out, instead, 32-year-old Galgalo Bariso (a boda boda rider) and his passenger, Sharim Kimoa, are lying on the ground for a while before one of the officers shoot them.
“A post-mortem report revealed that Bariso was killed as a result of multiple gunshot wounds in the head, chest and abdomen. The officer shot Bariso 14 times. According to his mother, Galgalo had gone to buy juice for his seven months expectant wife and never returned home,” Missing Voices stated.
The report also highlighted inconsistencies in police reports, underlining that police justified their killings by tagging their victims ‘criminals’, killed during ‘anti-crime’ operations. However, after investigating some cases, Missing Voices found evidence highlighting discrepancies within the police reports.
Missing Voices aims to end police killings and enforced disappearances in Kenya.
Since its inception in August 2018, Missing Voices has documented and verified data on police killings and enforced disappearances (EDs) and held several campaigns to disseminate our research while pushing the general public to report incidents of police misconduct.
These activities are done in partnership with stakeholders with the mission to get justice for victims and survivors and promote police accountability.
In 2021, Missing Voices documented 219 cases of police killings and enforced disappearances.
Originally there were 36 cases of enforced disappearances; four of these were found dead more than 24 hours after disappearing in police custody, two were returned and 30 remain missing. Inclusive with the four found dead, Missing Voices documented 187 cases of police killings.
These 219 cases of police killings and enforced disappearances resulted from 161 separate incidents.
