NAIROBI, Kenya, Nov 5 – The Kenya National Human Rights Commission (KNHCR) are pushing for the sanctioning of top officials in the Interior Ministry and Inspector General of police over abuses and unlawful acts during the GenZ protests.
A report tabled by the commission show that in the last four months showed 60 people lost their lives during the protests that commenced on 18th June with 26 people still missing with the commission decrying concealment of information from the relevant security agencies.
“Post mortem reports indicate that most of the deceased were shot using live bullets during the protests while others succumbed to injuries caused by blunt drama,” KNHCR Commission Vice Chair Marion Mutugi said.
Appearing before the National Assembly Security and Administration Committee, the Human Rights lobby group raised concerns over the increased unprecedented spate of abductions and enforced disappearances witnessed during and after the protests following documentation of 71 abductions.
Four months later, the office of the Director of Public Prosecution (ODPP) is yet to order investigations into the cases months after the violations of the law by the security officers were committed causing anguish among victim families.
“Despite the cases of police who violated the human rights laws being portrayed on TV screens and on social media.The DPP is yet to open the cases of any one police officers who was involved in the crimes,”Mutugi decried.
Efforts to investigate the cases have hit a dead end with abductees released reluctant to disclose their ordeal due to trauma and fear of retribution by their abductors with indications showing the police were involved.
Progress in investigating the incidents has also hit a snag, as most of the officers controlling the protests concealed their identities by covering their faces with hoods and balaclavas.
“This has made it impossible for the commission and other oversight bodies to identify them. Equally, a good number of vehicles used by the security agencies didn’t have registration numbers while others were concealed,”Mutugi said.
KNHCR demanding for explicit orders for the Inspector General of Police to furnish KNHCR with the list of deployment plan of security officers including the names, ranks and service numbers of all those deployed.
“The Inspector General of Police should immediately instruct, through an official police circular to all police stations to accord the KNHCR the requisite assistance and cooperation to enable it execute its constitutional mandate,”the commission vice chair remarked.
The commission documented 601 injuries across the country which ranged from deep fractures, bullet wounds and inhalation of teargas calling for the Internal Affairs Unit (IAU)to conduct internal investigations to ensure culpability of police officers who violated the law.
Mutugi expressed that police officers have obstructed efforts to investigate the veracity of human rights violations by denying them relevant information.
“The witness and victims have been afraid and reluctant to record statements with the commission due to intimidation and for fear of reprisals. Majority of those are unwillingly to testify against the suspected perpetrators,” Mutugi said.
While commending the commission, Homabay Town MP Peter Kaluma sought to strike out the push to sanction the Interior Security Cabinet Secretary for the abuses and unlawful acts by the police arguing that security agencies operate independently.
“The push for the Interior Cabinet Secretary to be sanctioned for the atrocities during the protests should be done away with because Article 245 of the constitution says the police are independent. They act on their own orders and not the Interior Boss, ” Kaluma said.
The protests charged by Genz were mainly to oppose the Finance Bill 2024, which was withdrawn following public uproar because it proposed increased taxes, including some regressive taxation measures, amid high living costs.
The rights groups said evidence confirmed that police unlawfully used a combination of lethal and less lethal weapons against largely peaceful protesters, save for isolated incidents where some threw stones or teargas canisters back at the police.
Source: capitalfm
