A section of international human rights groups now want a judicial panel to probe police officers’ handling of 2023 Azimio protests and their prosecution for the resultant killings, disappearances and abuses.
Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch say in an investigation report that no accountability has been done for the 31 deaths, hundreds of injuries and disappearances used by police to suppress the protests.
They say a commission looking into the police handling of the protest would be the best response in not only getting the facts out but also curb political violence in the country.
“To deal with the deep-rooted impunity in the police service that makes them become weapons in a political contest, the President needs to put together a Judicial Commission of Inquiry to dig deep into the police handling of the protest to arrest the culture of political violence in the country.”
The 77-page report titled “Unchecked Injustice: Kenya’s Suppression of the 2023 Protests,” is based on 226 interviews with survivors and witnesses to abuses.
The interviews covered opposition zones of Nairobi, Kisumu, Machakos, Migori, Nakuru, Kisii, Nyamira, Homa Bay, Siaya and Makueni counties, where the demos took place.
The Azimio coalition had called the demonstrations in protest of alleged electoral fraud, as well as high cost of living as Parliament considered the Finance Bill, 2023.
The report documents how police allegedly used arbitrary and excessive force against protesters between March and July 2023.
They shot directly into crowds with lethal weapons and rubber bullets, fired tear gas into residential areas and schools and carried out violent and abusive house-to-house operations, beating and shooting residents, killing at least 31 people, the report said.
The Independent Policing Oversight Authority recorded at least 67 were killed during this period. “...the police, under President William Ruto’s administration, committed grave rights abuses in response to largely peaceful opposition-led nationwide protests.
The demonstrations were triggered by the high cost of living and alleged electoral malpractices following the August 2022 general elections,” it reads.
Arbitrary arrests, detention, torture and other ill-treatment of people including children under 18, and the long-term health and socio-economic impact of abuses are also captured in the report.
“Amnesty International Kenya and Human Rights Watch call on the Kenyan government to acknowledge, condemn and investigate the killings and use of excessive force by police and hold to account those credibly implicated in abuses.”
A year later, the Ruto administration has yet to take any action to
afford the families affected closure
and hold officers accountable.
