Police killings must be brought to an end

Any progressive civilisation is first and foremost defined by the rule of law, sanctity of life and security. Security shapes life, business and politics, which in turn defines governance and the way individual members of a society live and interact.

This is why countries have constitutions that capture the basic principals on how citizens will live together in harmony. When the law is brazenly broken, it leaves people disillusioned. Which is why it will take long for the country to recover from the collective horror of the mindless police killings on Lang’ata Road, Nairobi, last week. The gang-like execution of crime suspects brought out the worst in a force that has never earned public sympathy on accountability.

According to witness accounts, the three men, who police allege were wanted criminals, were ordered out of their car and shot dead at point blank range as they lay on the tarmac. The fact that they had surrendered exposed the inhuman side of the police, which has time and again been projected to the public.

That the incident happened in broad daylight and in full view of pedestrians and motorists along the busy highway demonstrates the brazenness of the so-called elite squads. The media have often times exposed the callous acts of the police, but which the force’s bosses are adept at denying.

In his 2009 report on extra-judicial killings in Kenya, UN Special Rapporteur Philip Alston concluded that impunity is deeply entrenched in the force. Even more disturbing, according to Alston, is the existence of police death squads operating under instructions from senior officers to hunt down criminals.

When crime hit new levels in the 1990s, Romeo unit was constituted to deal with car-jackings. Instead, there were reports that members of the unit were hiring out their guns to criminal gangs. Then came the Flying Squad and the story remained the same. Kwekwe Squad was formed to end the Mungiki menace but did little to improve the police image as it turned into an execution squad. And now there is the Eagle Squad, which sources say was responsible for the Lang’ata Road summary executions.

The Alston report, which was dismissed by the police, forms the backbone of the envisaged police reforms in the new Constitution. However, from the look of things, the reforms might just take place on paper.

The Langa’ta Road killings took place just days after a truck driver on Thika Road was caught on camera pummelling an officer in an apparent bid to resist arrest. In the same week, two officers were shot and wounded in Shaurimoyo and Dandora estates.

The incidents elicited strong public sympathy towards a demoralised force that is under-staffed and ill-equipped to adequately deal with spiralling crime.

The public is weighed down by crime and the police would easily win over the public so long as they are seen to be fighting crime and eager to serve the public.

It is commendable that the Minister for Internal Security George Saitoti has asked for a thorough investigation into the matter. However, it may be too soon to celebrate because in the past investigations into similar incidents have yielded little. In fact such investigations have in the past only been initiated to cool down the public’s outrage.

To date dozens of families are still waiting to know the circumstances under which their loved ones were gunned down in the campaign to stamp out the outlawed Mungiki sect. Police is yet to reveal findings on the October extra-judicial killings of six men in Kinale forest in Kiambu County.

We hope that the investigators will get down to the bottom of this matter and the suspects charged with murder. If this case is handled properly and the culprits jailed, it would serve as a warning to other police officers that Kenya has entered a new era in which human rights are respected.

However, if the Ministry of Internal Security sweeps this matter under the carpet as it usually does, the police could get away with it again but it will not be for long before people start taking the law into their own hands.