Kenya takes the lead in Africa on the number of extra-judicial killings perpetrated by the police, a new report has revealed.

According to the 2016/17 report by Amnesty International, 122 cases of extrajudicial killings had been reported by October 2016, noting that the number could be higher since there is no official database of such cases.

“Police and other security agencies carried out extrajudicial executions as well as enforced disappearances, and torture,” the report says in part.

The report also notes rising attacks on human rights defenders and points out the murder of lawyer Willie Kimani, his client and their taxi driver. 

“On 21 September, four AP officers – Fredrick ole Leliman, Stephen Cheburet Morogo, Sylvia Wanjiku Wanjohi and Leonard Maina Mwangi – were found guilty of murdering the three men,” the report says.

The report also notes that police used excessive force last year to curtail freedom of expression by unleashing lethal force on “Political opposition, anti-corruption groups and other civil society activists, as well as journalists and bloggers”. The amnesty report cites an incident where police harassed, attacked and destroyed the camera of Duncan Wanga, a K24 TV journalist and cameraman, while he was covering a demonstration in the western city of Eldoret on 27 September.

The Amnesty International Report the state of human rights in 159 countries and territories during 2016.

The public image and reputation of the Kenya Police continue to border on the negative and even with the strides made by The Independent Police Oversight Authority (IPOA) to get justice for victims of police violations by bringing the involved officers to book, cases of extrajudicial killings continue to rise.

IPOA continues to cite a high number of complaints received from members of the public and lack of cooperation from the police as key challenges in its work.

“Lack of cooperation right from the leadership of the National Police Service has been a challenge and it makes our work more difficult because it delays our investigations,” said IPOA chairman, Mr Macharia Njeru.

In October last year, another report by The Independent Medico-Legal Unit (IMLU) revealed that 64 Kenyans died in police custody between January and April 2016. 53 of them were allegedly executed while the rest (11) died in unclear circumstances. http://www.kenyaforum.net/2016/10/05/nkaissery-reaction-on-extra-judicial-killings-report-indefensible/

Interior Cabinet Secretary (CS) Joseph Nkaissery, however, came out guns blazing to defend members of the police service against the accusations of extra-judicial killings.

“The allegations are clearly unsubstantiated and are made in bad faith to undermine the effort made by the police and other security agencies in managing preventing crime in this country,” Nkaissery said