KISUMU, Kenya, March 7 – Prime Minister Raila Odinga has accused the police of carrying out extra judicial killings in the pretext of maintaining law and order.
Mr Odinga stated that acts of impunity must be brought to an immediate stop and the rule of law restored.
Speaking in Siaya district during the burial of renowned scholar Prof. Atieno Odhiambo, the PM accused police of "killing innocent Kenyans and planting guns on them."
"People should not be shot without following the due process of the law. We have had cases where police officers shoot dead innocent citizens before they plant a gun on the body of the deceased" he said.
Mr Odinga attributed the trend to the collapse of the criminal justice system in the country and blamed the judiciary of laxity to end the impunity. He said the office of the Attorney General was equally guilty of abetting the retrogressive habit.
The PM said Police reforms as specified in Agenda Four of the national accord are required to avert such killings and redeem the waning public confidence on law enforcement agencies.
Elsewhere former legislator Paul Muite echoed the reforms call in the judiciary to end the arbitrally killings. Mr Muite regretted that most cases forwarded to courts are terminated without due process being followed and this leads to frustrations in the police force.
"We hear the police are trying to justify extrajudicial executions on the basis that the courts are not convicting these people," Mr. Muite stated but urged the police to conduct thorough investigations into such cases so as to provide the necessary evidence.
"If the problem is the courts, let’s fix it so that we can have a judiciary which will convict," he explained.
Police Commissioner Hussein Ali has remained under pressure to resign over accusations that over 500 youths had died on the hands of police during his tenure.
United Nations rapporteur on extra Judicial killings Philip Alston accused Maj Gen Ali and Attorney General Amos Wako of failing to abate the culture of impunity in the country’s security forces.
Two human rights activists and crusaders of families of victims of the arbitral killings were brutally murdered last Thursday.
About The Author
