IG Koome missed a point on how officers should respond to crisis

The postmortem declares the cause of death as asphyxia. The photos of the lifeless teenager’s body show considerable bruises to the head, neck, stomach and leg.

Close to 2,000 people have signed a petition calling for whoever may have assaulted, killed and moved his body from the school to be prosecuted. 

The Director of Public Prosecutions, the Kenya National Commission on Human Rights, and the police presided over the re-opening of the Nyando Social Justice Centre in Kisumu. The ten-year-old centre has been a resource to women and men seeking protection from gender-based violence and other human rights violations. Five days before and 500km from where Eugine was killed, the centre was burned down after eyewitnesses reported seeing incendiary devices being thrown into the compound on 19 July.

This attack and the abduction and subsequent release without charges of Kisumu based Boniface Ogutu Akach who was documenting police violence, were widely seen to be an attack on human rights defenders at the time. IPOA is investigating.

In this context, the Police Inspector’s studio comment that he does not wish to be popular missed the point. State officers may not need to be popular, but they do need to be pre-occupied with how their services can be more rights based and public centred.

Numerous war studies establish that the consequences of physical destruction and pain last much longer than acts of violence. The 2023 protests were mass casualty and mass trauma events. The mental and physical damage live on in among the survivors, victims’ families, law enforcement officers, you, and me.

Rather than fuel confrontation, uncertainty and fear about the current health strike, leaders could promote a sense of safety for all and respect for the rule of law.

Presently missing from the Health Ministry and the Police Service is the public confidence that the attitude, skills, and resources are collectively present to overcome the current crisis engulfing our medical centres, morgues and communities.

How difficult would it be for the Inspector General to discuss face to face with KMPDU leadership how security could be provided and the peaceful Eldoret and Nairobi demonstrations this week be replicated?

The sudden death of Chief of the Defence Forces General Francis Ogolla and nine other colleagues shocked Kenyans. As we memorialise their professionalism in service of the nation perhaps all state officers can find new ways of responding to old challenges in their honour.