The High Court has barred Inspector General of Police Japheth Koome and other police officers from using force on striking doctors in a case filed by lobby groups.
In a Court order issued on Tuesday, April 16, Milimani Court Justice Jairus Ngaah prohibited Koome from moving forward with orders given to the police force on April 14 to use force on medics picketing on the streets and the highways.
“Prohibition restraining the respondent IG Koome or any officer subordinate to him from enforcing his decision of April 14, 2024, by striking the medics' right to strike and to picket peaceably and unarmed,” the order reads in part.
According to the Judge, Koome and other superior officers will be held liable for issuing unconstitutional orders and directives to officers under their command to use unlawful force on striking doctors.
The Court further noted that senior officials within the police force failed to investigate and discipline officers using force to disperse citizens demonstrating and picketing as is their right.
“A structural interdict is issued directing the respondent (IG Koome) to investigate and discipline police officers who have violated the Constitution by using force on striking doctors contrary to 36, 37 and 41 of the Kenyan Constitution,” the order states.
The Judge further ordered an investigation on the Capitol Hill Police Station OCPD and other officers involved in injuring the KMPDU Director General Davji Atela and other medics during a peaceful protest on February 29 at Afya House.
The order followed court cases filed by 9 human rights groups which want Koome held accountable for any harm inflicted by police officers under his command on protesting doctors.
The organisations, including the Kenya Human Rights Commission (KHRC), argued that the Koome directive put the health workers' lives at risk, by motivating police officers to use force.
Consequently. through the filed case, the groups vouched for compensation for the KMPDU DG, for the assault and human rights violations that ensued during one of the demonstrations.
In a statement released on Sunday, IG Koome claimed that the ongoing doctors' strike was becoming a nuisance to the public, "The Service has witnessed and received reports of the inconveniences arising from the strike, with medics lying on the streets thus obstructing highways and public roads and disrupting the free flow of vehicles and movement of people."
The IG has been under pressure in the recent past from Unions, Members of Parliament and the public at large, who want him to resign from office citing various insecurity incidents in the country.
