Damaging Report on Extrajudicial Killing in Kenya Released

A report released by the Human Rights watch organization on extrajudicial killings in Kenya claimed that no fewer than 21 people had lost their lives since August 21, 2018.

It further claimed that these unexplained murders were mostly focused on low-income areas such as Dandora and the infamous Mathares slums.

“Police are arresting unarmed people and then gunning them down, and neither the police service nor its watchdog agency is doing much to stop it,” Otieno Namwaya, Africa researcher at Human Rights Watch, divulged.

The data was obtained after the non-governmental organization interviewed 35 people including witnesses, family members of victims, medical & social workers as well as activists and the local police.

Local laws mandate police officers who use lethal force to report the same to their immediate superior officer explaining the circumstances that necessitated the use of force.

However, the latest report went on to list numerous deaths that sparked outrage across the country such as that of the late Kevin Gitau who was gunned down on April 14, 2019 at the tender age of 25 just as he was about to travel out of the country to take up a new job in the Middle East.

A report published by the Star On October 31, 2018, which claimed that police in Dandora, Mathare, and Majengo killed at least 17 people in a seven-day period was also included in the report.

During the same month, an article published by the Daily Nation dated October 7, 2018, claimed that 107 lives in Nairobi and 180 across the country had been lost at the hands of officers who opted to use excessive force.

The police spokesman, Charles Owino, maintained that he did not have full information on the status of investigations but urged the oversight authority to investigate the killings.

“Any officer who breaches the law must face the consequences as an individual. In the case of the killings in Dandora and Mathare, Independent Policing Oversight Authority (IPOA) ought to investigate such killings and ensure the culprits are prosecuted.” he reiterated.

In one disturbing incident captured in the report, it is alleged that on April 17, 2019, about six police officers raided the home of 17-year-old Benson Kavindo in the Mlango Kubwa neighbourhood and accused him of theft.

“We could hear him pleading for his life and saying he was not a thief, but the police just dragged him out of the house and shot him dead just a few meters away from the house. He was kneeling down when police shot him.” a neighbour disclosed

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