Kenya: Police brutality condemned

Statement of the Kenyan Community Abroad (KCA): Kenya
Cannot Afford a Return to Police Brutality
Released: Friday, July 09, 2004

The Kenyan Community Abroad (KCA) is deeply saddened
by the recent spate of excessive force by police on
demonstrators in Kenya. KCA has always advocated zero
a tolerance stance on police brutality, having
previously insisted that no circumstance justifies the
shooting live ammunition at demonstrating wananchi.

We, therefore, strongly condemn the shooting to death
of two citizens in Kisumu in the past week. We believe
that the Kenyan Police authorities have enough
resources, manpower and training to control riots
without causing unnecessary death, and that the use of
live ammunition in Kisumu or any other place in Kenya
was totally uncalled for. KCA demands, on behalf of
all Kenyans, to know why police were authorized to use
live ammunition in Kisumu, which they had refrained
from doing in previous demonstrations.

We call for a swift, independent, and thorough
investigation of the Kisumu shootings so that those
culpable for these heinous acts can be brought to
book. We are concerned that in the quest for
maintaining law and order police disregarded
recommended tactics of unruly-crowd control. If the
police were under-manned or ill-equipped, then the
higher-ranking officers in charge of national security
need to explain this administrative breakdown, as the
government has at its disposals, structures and
mechanisms to predict what would happen and foretell a
possible breakdown in law and order.

As the Kisumu families bury relatives lost under
circumstances that could have been avoided, we demand
assurance that this sad incident is not a harbinger
for Kenya's immediate future. KCA is particularly
disheartened that this is happening less than 2 years
after Kenyans elected a government that they hoped
would usher in a new era of respect of human rights.

The goodwill that voters had invested in the new
government has been jolted because coalition
member-parties have failed to agree on how to build
the nation. Goal posts for fighting corruption,
providing essential services, and completing the
constitution have been repeatedly moved. Inter-party
wrangles are undermining government's ability to
manage the country because coalition member-parties
are hopelessly and selfishly involved in endless
struggles for dominance. We believe that the Kisumu
shooting, and other similar unfortunate incidents can
be avoided if there is reasonable harmony amongst
coalition member-parties.

As old-order politicians are recycled, and polarized
factions in the ruling coalition wrangle and struggle
for internecine dominance, Wanjiku continues to wake
up to daily insecurity, health system failure, and
abject poverty.

Lastly, whereas KCA has a zero-tolerance position on
any abuse of human rights, we want to make it clear
that organized civil - disobedience must be mollified
to disdain from civil-violence. Citizens must embrace
the responsibility to keep our society free of the
evils that we accused previous regimes of. Whether it
is university students' hauling rocks at motorists, or
mungiki beheading a deserter, or police shooting
demonstrators, or demonstrators hauling rocks at
police, we should remember that Kenya belongs to us
all, and that we all float or sink together.

LET THE SHOOTINGS STOP!

The Kenyan Community Abroad (KCA),
P. O. Box 5635
Washington, D.C. 20016-5635
E-mail: [email protected]
Fax: +1 (973) 940-8688