Police used weapons meant for war to quell protests by unarmed demonstrators, killing 61 people, a new report has said.
The report, by a consortium of human right groups including Amnesty International, Imlu and Law Society of Kenya, said anti-riot police used the weapons during the youth-led demonstrations.
Security experts said some of these are largely deployed in combat zones, as they are meant to exact crippling pain or fatally wound their targets.
“Police were armed with lethal and less lethal weapons, which Amnesty International weapons experts identified to be, among others, G3-, AK-, and Galil-pattern rifles, CZ Scorpion EVO 3 submachine guns, various types of shotguns loaded with kinetic impact projectiles and impact rounds,” the report reads.
Kinetic impact projectiles refers to plastic and rubber bullets that are usually deployed for crowd control.
Further, Imlu says it conducted autopsies on 49 of the 61 bodies and confirmed the patterns of death bore credence to their findings.
Police used lethal force not commensurate with the threat posed by the unarmed protestors, the group said.
The autopsies show that besides indiscriminate gunshot wounds, the victims also suffered blunt force trauma mostly to the back of their heads and had fractured bones, mainly on their joints.
The report was produced after investigation by the activists to document the use of force by security personnel manning the protests.
They have photos and videos that show police using "ill-adapted equipment such as grenade launcher cups mounted on lethal ammunition-capable systems (G3 rifles)".
This appears to have caused panic among protesters.
“These launcher cups require blank rounds to function and these can be easily confused as lethal rounds by protesters, as can be seen in several videos analysed by our researchers,” the report states.
“According to medics, they treated serious injuries likely caused by kinetic impact projectiles fired at close range.”
June 25 went down as the day most injuries and deaths were recorded.
Human rights organisations facilitated the release of over 300 persons detained protestors on that day.
It was the peak of the protests, with the rioters storming Parliament.
Police officers responding to protestors were poorly coordinated, “appeared to lack guidance and did not effectively communicate with each other, advancing, retreating and firing weapons at their own will”.
The lobbies also raised concern that despite bodies dropping from police firings, the officers did not offer help to the distressed protestors, which is a contravention of the law.
“Police fail to provide medical assistance as required by Principle 5(c) of the United Nations Basic Principle on the Use of Force and Firearms by Law Enforcement Officials. Instead, they fire tear gas canisters directly at the group, who flee, leaving the injured person lying on the ground.”
The report also fingers police bosses for allowing officers to disguise themselves by using unmarked cars, covering their faces and responding while in plain clothes, which offended the law.
“Videos and photos taken throughout the day show that most officers, including those in identifiable police fatigues, were not identifiable by their service numbers as required under Section 10 of the National Police Service Act,” the findings read.
“Most hid their faces and wore masks or balaclavas. Images also show groups of men in civilian clothes carrying weapons working alongside the police and riding in unmarked vehicles.”
International human rights standards require police to be uniformed and have identifying markers, including name tags or service numbers.
The report records that the LSK had documented 72 people that had been abducted, released or were still missing in relation to the protests as at the end of August.
Thirteen disappeared on June 25, while 23 went missing within seven days of this protest.