Are the police avenging their colleagues death by shooting innocent souls?
Cases of police shooting innocent people is alarming ,in a span of seven days,police have executed 17 people within the Dandora, Mathare and Majengo areas of Nairobi.
Early this week ,the Independent Policing Oversight Authority (IPOA) announced a new probe into the killing of the six suspected thugs in Dandora.
IPOA has launched Investigations into the shooting of 6 people by police in Dandora on Sunday. IPOA is also probing the death of 3 people shot by police in Yatta last Tuesday. The law requires deaths caused by police action be investigated.^NM @NPSOfficial_KE @IJMKenya @gathara
— IPOA (@IPOA_KE) October 29, 2018
A group of human rights defenders have come out to condemn the shotting by the police in what is seen as revenge killings.
Early this week police officer shot five suspected thugs in separate incidences in Mathare North area after their colleague was shot dead in the area.
Area activists claim that the killings are revenge killings being conducted by police after their colleague was shot by thugs near Homechoice Supermarket in Mathare on Friday.
Two of the suspects who were shot reportedly pulled out of their house and shot dead near Mathare North Primary School, other two were pulled from a funeral service in the area while one was killed after police pulled him from Mathare North Hospital where he had gone to treat gun shot wound.
Extrajudicial killings by police are getting more numerous by the day but authorities are not doing enough to stop escalation of these killings.
In a period of one month, police have carried out 14 extra judicial killings in Dandora alone, according to a local human rights organization, Dandora Justice Centre.
The role of civil society is to document incidents, be the watchdog and hold the police accountable because currently police enjoy impunity. They kill suspects and immediately their bosses come to their defence.
As civil society, we have a duty to ensure police are held accountable.
We must also ensure that the rule of law is applied and anyone who commits a crime is arrested and faces the law, including the police.
If they kill someone, they should be arrested and face the law.