By Kenneth Kwama

As you read this, the family of Esther Wangui — the waitress who was felled by a stray bullet during police battles with hawkers on a Nairobi street a few days ago, is still in agony.

It is perhaps a tragedy of life, but one that relatives and friends of people like Wangui, who was buried yesterday in Murang’a, have to live with, knowing she was killed by the police, but that the murderer(s) would escape justice.

With the police left to investigate themselves in such instances, there is no chance of Wangui or many others that have died in similar circumstances getting justice — a testimony to the danger we all face.

Some of these scenes have been too gruesome to imagine, let alone witness. But they reached millions of people, thanks to television. It is an absolute disgrace for police officers to behave in a violent way towards innocent female by-passers. They even whipped some on the backside during the confrontation with mechanics over land in Grogan, Nairobi.

A State by its very definition is the embodiment of lawful behaviour. It demands legal behaviour from citizens and should always act lawfully and as a sentinel of human rights. This is the fundamental difference between State action and acts perpetrated by groups like Mungiki.

It would have been ordinary to see members of an outlawed sect like Mungiki throw back stones at rioters, but not the police. The State should not stoop that low.

Reforms

Not that the police turned violent without provocation. But provocation was no reason for the ‘disciplined forces’ to repay in kind.

The us-versus-them confrontation mentality creeping into the force may help it in tackling some immediate challenges, but could prove counter-productive in the long run and deprive it of public support.

Without the crucial public support, the force could find itself morally bankrupt, floating far above the world it hopes to change. This will make the reforms being proposed for the police force unworkable.

Wangui’s death severely tested the Government’s commitment to protecting life and other fundamental freedoms because it occurred on the same day the State defended itself in Geneva against accusations by UN Special Rappoteur Prof Philip Alston whose report detailed instances of extrajudicial killings by security forces.

Statements against human rights defenders prevent, as they are often intended to do, a real look at why such problems thrive in our country and also help, again as they are intended to, discredit the work of human rights defenders, who have been struggling to keep us safe from unbridled State power and societal prejudice.

The Government knows it has been caught on the wrong foot and has pledged to reform the police force. But its sincerity will be measured by its determination to punish the guilty and reorient the rest of the force.

—Kwama (kenkwama@eastandard.net) is a senior writer with The Standard