Prosecute police officers who beat up student

It is not the first time students of Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology (JKUAT) have complained to the management about rampant insecurity.

On occasions, students have been robbed, mugged and even killed near their hostels, yet the management has done little to address the menace.

While demonstrations would not solve their problems, it is easy to sympathise with the students. Their action was meant to draw attention to their plight, except that they did not bargain for the barbarism that police officers meted out to them. Called in to quell the demonstrations, police officers chose to brutalise students instead. Against unarmed students, that was unacceptable because teargas would have sufficed. 

It is encouraging that the four officers caught on video manhandling a student have been interdicted, but that alone is not enough; it amounts to a mere slap on the wrist.

The Independent Policing Oversight Authority should ensure those officers are prosecuted and the service cleaned of the growing number of rogue officers. Rogue police officers cannot be allowed to continually walk away with cases of misdemeanour without dragging the name of the Police Service through mud.

Retraining police officers to give them a humane face in line with the change of name from a Police Force to a Police Service is long overdue. Public confidence in police officers is critical to their success in maintaining law and order.