Police Reforms Group urges IPOA to probe protest deaths, abductions

Kenyans stage peaceful anti-Finance Bill protests in Nairobi. [The Standard]

The Police Working Reforms Group (PRWG-K) says it has documented at least 23 deaths during the anti-Finance Bill protests period, and thirty-four (34) enforced disappearances in Kenya.

According to the Group, a total of 271 people have been injured since the start of the demonstrations in mid-May, which escalated last week of June.

The organisation, in a letter to the Independent Policing Oversight Authority (IPOA) dated June 29, alleged that the gross violation of human rights witnessed in the past weeks was an action of the National Police Service (NPS).

“We thus implore IPOA to investigate these instances expeditiously and in great detail. Individuals in charge of approving and executing the use of fatal force, making arbitrary arrests, kidnappings, and forced disappearances must be held accountable and prosecuted,” PRWG said.

The Police Reforms Group also wants IPOA to investigate and monitor police behavior going forward to ensure there’s no repeat of abductions and police brutality cases as witnessed.  

“IPOA must carry out its mission to impartially investigate police behavior and guarantee that such flagrant breaches of human rights never happen again.”  

“A just and democratic society must uphold the rights to nonviolent assembly, protection from arbitrary arrest, and the avoidance of forced disappearances,” said the organisation.

Their remarks come on the back of several complaints from the citizenry and human rights organizations against cases of police brutality during the just-ended countrywide protests.