NAIROBI, Kenya, Jun 30 — Deputy President William Ruto has committed to end all forms of extra-judicial killings in the country if elected President in the August 9 polls.
To achieve this, Ruto who unveiled his manifesto on Thursday said he will establish the Coroner General’s Office as per the National Coroner’s Service Act of 2017.
The Act establishes a framework for investigations and determination of the cause of reported unnatural deaths in the country and will be headed by a coroner.
“The Kenya Kwanza Alliance commits to completing the full implementation of the Constitution of Kenya 2010 and to promote the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal Number 16, on peace, justice and strong institutions,” Ruto said.
The coroner will be in charge of investigating violent deaths, deaths by unfair means, or during pregnancy or sudden deaths, deaths in police or military custody and see to it that justice prevails.
Kenya has been dogged by cases of enforced disappearances and cases of extra-judicial killings but Ruto says that to boost good governance in the country, he will end the issue once and for all.
While outlining his manifesto, Ruto said he will be intentional on preserving and protecting the lives of Kenyans.
“The Kenya Kwanza Alliance pledges to the people of Kenya to complete and consolidate the implementation of the Constitution, by strengthening constitutionalism, entrenching the rule of law, improving access to justice and enhancing respect for human rights,” he said.
In April 2021, Missing Voices, a consortium of fifteen civil society organizations, came out with a report indicating that there are many cases of enforced disappearances across the country than initially thought.
In 2021 alone, the human rights bodies documented 219 cases of police killings and enforced disappearances.
“Out of these, 187 cases were of police killings, and 32 of enforced disappearances. Of the 32 cases of enforced disappearances, two of the victims were later found alive after campaigns by civil society organizations,” Missing Voices said.
Originally, there were 36 cases of enforced disappearances; four of these were found dead more than 24 hours after disappearing in police custody, two were returned alive and 30 remain missing.
According to Missing Voices, 219 cases of police killings and enforced disappearances resulted from 161 separate incidents.
They singled out the Pangani Police Station of the infamous Pangani Six as the station with the highest number of disappearances that ended up with victims found murdered.
The civil society groups documented 30 cases of police killings reportedly associated with Pangani Police Station.
In 2019, Missing Voice documented 145 cases of police killings. Another 168 people were reported to either have been killed or disappeared in police custody in 2020.
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