What should be done to reduce high cases of police brutality

Police officers beating defiant Motorists at Nakuru KFA round about while enforcing the Night curfew due to Coronavirus pandemic in on March 27,2020 [Kipsang Joseph/Standard]

Cases of ruthless police brutality have been rampant in the country for a long time and are considered part and parcel of the history of the Kenya Police Service. In Africa, this vice can be traced to the colonial times when the police were used by the colonial governments to enforce repressive laws, taxes and forced labour on the locals. However, its persistence in Kenya can be attributed to a plethora of factors.

In most cases, police brutality is fuelled by competing political interests. This explains why many cases of brutality occur during heightened political activities. From independence, Kenyan politicians always wanted to have in place a police service they can control and use as a lethal tool to oppress and suppress their political rivals, real or imagined.