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The time when police could get away with anything and boast about it could soon end if pressure for accountability by the Independent Police Oversight Authority and human right lobby groups is sustained. As well as public outrage.
Ipoa spokesperson Dennis Oketch told the Star the authority aims to engender “professionalism and discipline in the police service” as opposed to the perception of raw power and authority to lord it over citizenry.
The aim is also to promote and practice transparency and accountability, he said.
Oketch said Ipoa currently has 53 court cases against officers accused of misusing power through extrajudicial killings, assault and grievous injury.
The law requires Ipoa to investigate officers on complaints from the public or on its own. It forwards recommendations to the Director of Public Prosecutions who decides whether it can sustain a prosecution.
Some cases in which Ipoa has secured conviction include the death sentence this month for former Ruaraka OCS Nahashon Mutua for brutalising and killing an inmate at the station, Martin Koome.
The other is a seven-year jail term to two officers in Kinango, Kwale county, for fatally shooting a young girl, Kwekwe Mwandaza, when they stormed her house in 2014 “looking for criminals.” The Kingango DCIO Veronica Gitahi and Constable Issah Mzee were each sentenced to seven years in jail.
The authority secured a 15-year-term for celebrity crime buster cop Titus Ngamau Musila for fatally shooting Kenneth Kimani Mwangi at Githurai Stage.
Civil society groups have become a fulcrum in confronting police excesses by partnering with Ipoa in probing cases and collating and preserving evidence.
The societies have established social justice centers, especially in slums. They operate in Dandora, Mathare, Kibera, Kamukunji, Kiambio in Eastlands near Buruburu, Kayole, Mukuru, Githurai and Korogocho.
Wilfred Olal, convener of the Social Justice Centres Working Group and coordinator of the Dandora Community Justice Centre, told the Star their presence at the grassroots as encouraged victims’ families to speak out, often providing an alternative narrative to that of the police.
“In most extrajudicial killings, police often are the first to speak to the media alleging the deceased were armed thugs,” he said. “In the past, the media would report it that way and it would stop there.”
Olal said the centres have support from human right lobbies such as the International Justice Mission and Transparency International who guide them on the best way to collect and collate evidence.
The Dandora Centre stood out when it meticulously documented the police shooting of six men in Dandora Phase II in July last year and forwarded the files to IJM and Ipoa.
Hussein Khalid, executive director of Haki Africa, told the Star civil society groups have been at the forefront in confronting arbitrary killings of suspected criminals.
“At the Coast alone, we have 68 social justice organisations pursuing cases, even minute ones, documenting evidence as we work with Ipoa,” he said.
“As Haki Africa, we have managed to bring Interior CS Fred Matiang’i and the DPP Noordin Haji down to the Coast to explain to them the challenges the resident go through at the hands of police. They also acknowledged that extrajudicial executions are happening.”
Police tend to claim those they’ve killed were notorious thugs or had dangerous weapons, and “hence, had to be neutralised,” Khalid said.
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