Police can't solely impose social order among Kenyans

Irungu Houghton

We have collapsed violent crimes, mob justice and extra-judicial killings and our urban cities are traumatised. Last week, the nation reeled from an Eastleigh street execution. Within a week, six other cases had been reported. As I write, four men sit in Kayole Police Station. They are bruised, teeth missing and one had a bullet lodged in his leg. They await a habeas corpus application to have them produced in court to answer unknown criminal charges. A fifth was allegedly shot dead soon after his release.

Sadly, I have no comfort yet for those shocked by the Eastleigh execution. Extra-judicial killings are widespread and increasing. At least 206 people lost their lives last year, 65 more than 2015. Over 90 per cent of them were jobless, poor and young men. As a jobless, poor and young man in Nairobi you are 26 times more likely to be summarily executed for suspected criminal activities than in Bungoma, the county with the lowest number of deaths.