For femicide cases to stand, create special courts – LSK

For two years, femicide and police accountability for alleged crimes have been a major concern, a report has shown.

Law Society of Kenya president Faith Odhiambo said creating specialised courts to deal with each issue would reduce the killing of women and wrongdoing by police, especially during protests and anti-crime and anti-terror operations.

In an exclusive interview with the Star, Odhiambo said far-reaching legal reforms will help deter the two crimes by giving them dedicated attention and swift hearings.

Creating the two specialised courts by the Judiciary to hear cases would ensure quick outcomes, affording the families of victims expeditious justice and vindicating the accused when the evidence does not support charges.

Like the anti-corruption and the small claim courts, femicide and police courts will invigorate the constitutional requirement for accountability by those with power and justice to the deprived, Odhiambo said.

“Pressure for police reforms is not new. Since 2007, the country has made sustained progress but the difference can hardly be noticed, especially in police conduct and cases of impunity. “I’m particularly interested in police handling of peaceful protests,” the LSK boss said.

Odhiambo said although police oversight is already provided by legislation following the creation of the Independent Policing Oversight Authority, the Judiciary has not adequately accommodated objectives of the reform movement.

“It still takes inordinately long to dispense justice to the families who blame police for one infraction or another, especially on matters related to brutality, enforced disappearances, and extrajudicial killings,” she said.

You can barely count the number of officers who have been held accountable through the courts for these injustices. Unless and until we hold individual officers to a higher threshold of accountability, and do so swiftly, we will continue witnessing the high-handed and lawless policing we are witnessing.”

According to civil society platform Missing Voices, since 2019, as many as 1,350 extrajudicial killings and 350 enforced disappearances have been documented.

Of all cases identified, only 28 have been prosecuted and a number of them are stalled in the criminal justice process.

The platform created by a consortium of lobbies under a police reform working group indicates its data shows there were 125 illegal deaths attributed to police in 2023, 153 in 2022, 219 (2021), 168 (2020) and 145 (2019).

“The majority of extrajudicial executions are preceded by enforced disappearances, a sinister pattern that significantly escalates whenever security agencies are engaged in eliminating suspected organised criminal groups,” Missing Voices says.

Moreover, it says the abuse of lethal force is not limited to policing protests – protesting peacefully is a constitutionally protected right – but also occurs during counter-terrorism operations by multiple security agencies, including the police, the army and the paramilitary police.

Odhiambo said the new court would complement the work by police watchdog Ipoa and the Internal Affairs Unit and that it would also benefit accused officers.

“This specialised court would also afford fairness to police officers because currently, they face widespread public bashing and with the long duration of cases in the courts. Their lives remain in abeyance forever. It is crucial to also afford them closure and let them resume service or handle the consequences of the process,” the chief lawyer said.

“Otherwise, it is unfair to have officers be in unending court processes.”