Rights group condemns alleged transfer of Nandi Hills 'pool table' police

Police officers during a past pass out at Kenya Police College in Kiganjo, Nyeri County.  [File, Standard]

Police Reforms Working Group (PRWG) has condemned the alleged transfer of six police officers accused of assaulting a group of young men over a late-night game of pool in Nandi Hills.

According to the consortium of organisations lobbying for human rights-compliant policing, such a move rewards police misconduct and counters efforts to end excessive force and police brutality amid a push for accountability.

“We maintain that administrative transfers are not a form of accountability; rather, they serve to entrench a culture of impunity within the National Police Service,” the group said in a statement on Monday, February 9.

It added: “By merely relocating officers accused of violence, the Service fails to address the underlying misconduct and instead risks spreading the same patterns of abuse to new communities.”

Instead, PRWG wants the Independent Policing Oversight Authority (IPOA) to take up the matter and recommend disciplinary measures against those implicated.

Additionally, they insist that police bosses who ordered the operation must equally be held to account in line with the principle of command responsibility in the police service.

The National Police Service, in a January 31 statement, revealed that its Internal Affairs Unit (IAU) had commenced investigations into the incident and recommended administrative action against six officers captured in the viral surveillance video.

They included the Sub-county Police Commander (OCPD) for Tinderet, the Officer Commanding Station (OCS) for Songoh, the OCS for Nandi Hills, and officers in charge of the Rapid Deployment Unit (RDU), GSU, and ASTU at Songoh Camp.

However, on Thursday last week, Nandi Senator Samson Cheragey emerged with claims that the officers had been redeployed to stations across Nairobi in what looked like a soft landing for the besieged officers on the face value.

He claimed that Tinderet OCPD was moved to Lang’ata Sub-County, the Songoh OCS to Central Police Station, while the Nandi Hills OCS was posted to Pangani Police Station.

The officer in charge of RDU Songoh Camp was allegedly sent to police headquarters.

Similarly, PRWG has criticised Coast Regional Police Commander Ali Nuno's order to police officers to use force against criminal gangs in Mombasa, saying that there must be a justification for any shooting and each must be done within the law.