Brutality of ‘askaris’ battling hawkers using knives

Nairobi County Government is in the spotlight following a revelation of dozens of cases involving stabbing of street vendors by county askaris. In a scenario that illustrates raw brutality of the capital city’s inspectorate department personnel; more than 30 hawkers have come out and displayed the wounds inflicted on them by the askaris during daily confrontations in the city.

Scores of hawkers have also died as a result of the gory attacks believed to have started mid last year. Multiple witness and victim accounts show that the county law enforcers have been operating while armed with machetes, knives, pangas, clubs and broken bottles to attack the hawkers.

David Waweru, Nairobi Hawkers Association chairman, says county government askaris have resulted to meting out justice unilaterally.

“The inspectorate department vans have been turned into courts where a guilty verdict is readily passed for all victims. After an arrest, they first rob one of all personal valuables before stabbing with a knife, which they call kupewa dawa.

Worryingly, the askaris are said to use the same knives on different victims, exposing them to infections including HIV and Aids, among others.

Waweru says the fact that this happens in the full view of police officers who accompany the askaris makes it hard for someone to report the assault to the police.

Other than many victims of stabbing, (see victims narrations) Harun Gathece, 26, died as a result of alleged stabbing. On the evening of Wednesday; October 8, he was cornered by the askaris at Ngara Market while selling wares. He was stabbed on the head and succumbed to the injuries at Kenyatta National Hospital shortly after. Gathece was buried last Friday. On July 3, Omondi Okoth, another street vendor, was reportedly shot dead by the askaris who were riding in county vans.

To indicate the gravity of the matter, The Kenya National Commission on Human Rights (KNCHR) says it has, in the past six months, received 20 complaints involving brutalising of hawkers by the askaris.

“This is a very big problem and it looks like an institutional approach to how hawkers should be handled,” says Patricia Nyaundi, the commission secretary.

She says KNCHR will, from next week, invite members of the public to share more information on the brutality with the intent of having the individual perpetrators charged in court.

When contacted by The Standard on Saturday, the head of the Nairobi Metropolitan Police, Francis Munyambu, refused to comment.

In April, The Independent Medico-Legal Unit (IMLU) wrote to Nairobi governor Dr Evans Kidero, over the same issue.