Police chief should not turn Kenya into Banana Republic

The roguish, bullish and thuggish acts of our police should prick conscience of the nation. Though police often shoot back in self-defence that is not what has been happening. There is indiscriminate murder of ‘suspects’. That is why the visiting UN Special Rapporteur on Extrajudicial Killings, Arbitrary or Summary Executions, Prof Phillip Alston, concluded: "The Police Commissioner in particular, along with various other senior officials, assured me that no such killings take place. But he and his colleagues appear to be the only people in the entire country who believe this claim."

Those who pull the trigger, as we discerned from slain former police officer-turned-whistleblower, Bernard Kiriinya, are from an extermination squad within the police force. It appears to have been accorded the licence to kill and often fake the crime scene to reflect a struggle and shoot-out. Kiirinya’s statement was recorded by Kenya National Commission on Human Rights.