Police force a threat to fragile nationhood

Kenyans must condemn extrajudicial killings against all citizens irrespective of their status.

A significant number of Kenyans supported the killings of innocent Kenyans during the anti-IEBC protests. Why? Was it politically convenient? It was too distant and therefore of no consequence to our lives. They were not related to us. They were not from our ethnic group. They were from a troublesome group.

Being armed with a stone is no reason to kill someone. Death is too high a price to pay for carrying around a stone or merely taunting the police.

Police officers have too many options to calm down protestors. They can negotiate, use teargas or rubber bullets. And if they have to use live bullets, they can, for instance, shoot at the leg to numb, rather than snuffing life out of a fellow human being.

Even before I get to the more recent execution of lawyer Willie Kimani, Josephat Mwenda and Joseph Muiruri, I am still stuck at the anti-IEBC protest murders. Why did they do it?

Were they under express instructions to shoot and kill? We are somewhat a civilised modern society. That’s why we have the court system.

I call upon the Government to absorb all the incumbent officers into the civil service and start rebuilding the police service to rebuild its image to gain public confidence.

The force, as currently structured, is irredeemable. And they are a threat to our already fragile nationhood.