Poor youths turned to dart boards for the police to aim their live bullets

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Kenyan police often dismiss complaints of brutality, saying violent crime demands a violent response. In the past ,a video of plainclothes police shooting dead an unarmed man went viral. The police did not deny the shooting, but justified it by saying the victim was suspected of killing an officer.

In comments to Kenyan media after the killing, the then Nairobi police commander Japheth Koome was quoted as saying when “gangsters” kill police officers, they will “get it” from him. Koome did not respond to requests for comment for this article.

Many would agree with me that Kenya police have gone beyond being trigger-happy and become a killing machine.

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There is no justification anywhere (in law) for the police to fatally shoot innocent people, least of all unarmed ones. The poor youth of this country have been turned into dart boards for the police to aim their live bullets at and it must stop. Full stop.

NGOs are also out to try and support victims of police brutality, but what does the government do? Deny there is extrajudicial killing! This is coming from the minister in charge of security for all. If not extrajudicial killing, then we are talking of a bloodbath. Either of them being miscarriage of justice of an unimaginable scale.

We cannot stop crime by exterminating youth. Police are assuming an extraordinary level of illegal power by summarily executing whoever they deem to be a “suspect”.

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The latest incident is of Maina, 23, a student at Leeds University, was shot dead  by the police who claim he was among a group of thugs that was terrorising residents of Line Saba.

But the residents have refuted the police account, saying it was a classic case of extra-judicial killing.

IPOA was set up in 2011 after police killed hundreds of Kenyans during violence that followed disputed elections in 2007. The agency can investigate police on its own initiative or after receiving a complaint from the public, and it has the power to order any serving or retired officer to appear before it and to produce documents. IPOA submits the findings of its investigations to prosecutors, who decide whether to pursue a criminal trial or order an inquest.Image result for kenya police killer machine

While Njeru, the head of IPOA, blames the courts’ glacial pace for failures to convict police who commit crimes, documents reviewed by Reuters show that IPOA has its own administrative problems – despite receiving $5.7 million from the U.S. government for an electronic case management system. when  asked for details of current cases, the watchdog said 47 cases were active, either as prosecutions or inquests. However, a list it supplied contained only 38 cases. Five had no case number, making them impossible to trace.

Image result for kenya police killer machine

The primary role of the police is to maintain law and order. By taking away lives so brutally and violently, they break the very laws they are meant to enforce. How did the police end up above the law?

The level of violence police are meting out in towns such as Mombasa is very personal to me. I grew up there feeling safe and secure. Granted, the crime rate has, indeed, increased in the coastal town, and so has the level of poverty.

Crime is no excuse for the police to act outside the law, however. Violence is not an effective crime control method and never was. The police well know that plastic bullets and stun guns are better alternatives to live bullets.

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