Let's stop hypocrisy in dealing with DP Ruto's pilot case

It beats me how a mere push of a law enforcement officer by a civilian creates news. In fact, the officer who was shoved to the ground in that viral video should be fired. I mean, if she is tasked with protecting and serving, what’s her business crying rather than arrest the offender?

Although this calls for condemnation of the perpetrator and their prosecution if evidence supports guilt, the level of hypocrisy the case has reached is appalling. Case in point is the late 2000s, when we witnessed the beating and dragging of a policeman on the dusty Thika Road by a truck driver, where all the onlookers cheered. No one raised a finger. In other parts of the country, the media has aired images of officers with bloody faces, broken noses, and broken limbs. All these result from disagreement with civilians on various issues, which form part of our democracy.

Having said that, what is the big deal with the shoving of a female police officer? Is it because she is a woman? In the classic characteristic of Kenyans, for the umpteenth time, nobody is willing to hear the other side of the story. And just like the Pilate’s court, we are all shouting for the crucifixion of the mzungu pilot. Although I don’t support violence against women, my other innocent question is, wasn’t the female police officer trained for nine months to deal with such situations?

By the same token, if it were a male officer roughened up in a similar manner, the #KOT and their ilk would have been the first ones to question the effectiveness of the Kiganjo training curriculum. This cheap, two-faced feminism should stop.

It is important to note that no police officer is always right – although they purport to be. Here in Kenya, the boys in blue can arrest you for the flimsiest of reasons. For instance, some APs slapped me the other day for telling them that I knew my constitutional rights and could not be arrested without knowing the wrong I committed. It only needed some courage from me to push one of them to the ground. Of course, I feared the repercussions, but I thought of it anyway.

With the creation of the new Police Service and the IPOA, the modus operandi of the institution should change. The rule of the thumb should be: inform an offender of his wrongs, and then arrest them.