Kibra magistrate gave Mwangi and Kenyans the wrong advice

From left activist Boniface Mwangi and Haki Africa executive director Hussein Khalid along Koinange Street during demonstrations in memory of the lives lost during the Gen-Z demonstrations on July 25, 2024. [Kanyiri Wahito]

"Go home and love your children." Two things came to mind listening to Senior Principal Magistrate Samson Temu admonish activist Boniface Mwangi. On the one hand, I could resonate. The other part of me though, was hugely disappointed.

I was taken aback by his offhand remark that police are "trained to kill humans not animals". Who exactly are the police trained to kill? Under what circumstances? Was he, in actual sense, admitting that extra-judicial killing is part of our policing and judicial processes or was this a veiled threat?