Police spokesperson explains why they won't release names of officers beating JKUAT student

Names and photos of police officers who brutally beat up a Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology (JKUAT) student will not be released.

This is according to Police spokesperson Charles Owino explained why during an interview on Wednesday morning 13 November on Citizen TV.

Kenyans on social media expressed their frustrations after the Kenya Police, through their Twitter handle, announced that the officers caught on camera beating up a JKUAT student had been identified.

Most netizens demanded that the police release the names and photos of the four officers to the public.

However, according to Mr Owino, releasing the photos and names of the officers will only encourage the 'criminal' to continue with the vice.

The police spokesperson also said that releasing the photos will cause trauma to the family members of the officers in question.

"If your child is in school and the father is revealed to have beat up somebody the other children will mock the child over and over again," explained Mr Owino.

"What is most important is the action. We felt preliminarily we hold the names because some of these officers have done very good things and you don't know who is against that particular office," he continued.

Mr Owino also clarified that they had only interdicted three out of the four officers seen in the video beating up the JKUAT student. He said that the fourth officer is yet to be identified.

"We did not interdict four; we interdicted three. The fourth officer has not been identified. We will also not release pictures and names of the officer," continued the police spokesperson.

Among the panellists was John Waiganjo, Commissioner at the Independent Policing Oversight Authority (IPOA), who confirmed that they received the names and photos of the three officers.