DETAILS: How rogue police are killing innocent youth with impunity

Steve Wero was executed by policemen outside Mowlem police station in Nairobi’s Dandora Estate on October 16th this year.

According to his father  James Ngare, his 20 year old son had been arrested at Dandora cinema a day before. His mistake was operating a boda boda without a license and a reflector jacket.

He was locked up at the station until the following day at about 9am when he was picked by three armed officers and bundled in a white probox car.

“Wero was hiring the motorcycle and was remitting Sh500 per day to the owner. He completed his form four in 2016 and he has tried to look for a job in vain,” Ngare, a metal dealer, said.

But Wero is not the only person who has mysteriously died in the hands of rogue police men who are killing Kenyans with impunity.

The police have killed 24 people in the past three weeks in Dandora, Kayole, Mathare and Majengo, local based human rights organisations have said.

They include six in Dandora; two in Mowlem; 10 in Mathare North; four in Majengo; and two in Kayole.

Amid sobs and tears, Bena Buluma narrated how his two sons – Victor and Bernard – were killed in cold blood by police officers as they were returning home from work on August 9, last year.

Victor, 22, was shot on back and Bernard, 27, on the head and died instantly at about 2.30pm on Stage Number 10 in Mathare. “I now have two orphans that I have to take care of and I don’t have a job. My children were killed and I can say before God that they were not thieves,” she said.

Agony written all over her face, Buluma lamented about the arbitrary killing saying that the police should arrest and charge the suspected youths instead.

“No mothers gives birth to child to become a thief or go to the university. We are left with burden and we are suffering. Let them arrest and jail them. It is painful,” she said.

Social Justice Centre and Police Reform Working Group raised a red flag over the rising cases of extrajudicial executions in informal settlements and called on the government to act swiftly and stop the killings.

Benna Buluma, who lost two children to extrajudicial killings, speaks to Dandora Justice Centre / EZEKIEL AMING’A

“We wish to express concern over the increasing incidences of death from police use of lethal force. Over the past one month, incidences of torture and extrajudicial executions implicating police officers have sharply risen,” Mathare Social Justice coordinator Gacheke Gachihi said.

The organisations have been documenting extrajudicial killings in the informal settlements and forwarding the cases to Independent Policing Oversight Authority for investigations and prosecution of the officers implicated in the killings.

Gachihi, who read a joint statement during a press briefing at the Dandora Community Justice Centre yesterday, said the dreaded officers have been carrying out the executions in open places and in broad daylight . Some of them (police) are well-known to the residents.

 

 

 

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *