Police resorted to abductions, forced disappearances, arrests, torture and looting to deal with anti-Finance Bill protests called by youths in June this year.
The Kenya National Human Rights Commission (KNCHR) and the Independent Policing Oversight Authority (IPOA) have released damning reports revealing how police officers wore civilian clothes, used unmarked cars and distorted police cars to enable them to commit atrocities without being identified.
The police also deployed pro-government counter protests where more than 100 pro-government groups in motorcycles were fuelled and allowed to access the streets of Nairobi chanting anti-Gen-Z protests.
In their reports to the National Assembly Committee on Administration and Internal Security, the two bodies regretted that the tactics used by officers made it impossible for them to hold individual officers accountable.
IPOA director Elema Halake told the MPs that as of now, six victims are still missing while 20 others who were abducted have been found alive.
“The authority is actively investigating two cases of deaths and four cases of injuries to persons who were abducted suspected to have been committed by the members of the National Police Service (NPS),” the director said.
The authority has recommended amendments of the NPS Act to hold police superiors criminally responsible for offences, including kidnappings and abductions, committed by their subordinates. The commission cited six cases where the victims are still missing, some of them allegedly abducted by officers whose faces were covered and were aboard a black double cabin.
Two victims were abducted by individuals who were in civilian clothing, carrying guns and forced into a white Subaru.
Still missing
Another victim, Dennis Kimotho, was arrested by officers at Rongai in Kajiado county, arraigned in court at Ngong law court and later remanded at Industrial Prison awaiting processing of his cash bail but could not be traced when his advocate went to release him.
The agency disclosed that since the demonstrations began, they have recorded 60 deaths including those of three minors, 71 cases of abductions and enforced disappearances, 1,376 arrests across Nairobi, Nakuru, Migori, Homa Bay, Kisumu and Eldoret as well as 601 injuries.
The commission regretted that some of those abducted were yet to be found citing the case of Wajir Member of the County Assembly Yusuf Ahmed who has been missing for the last 50 days.
The police, the report further notes, teargassed and attacked medical centres set at Jamia Mosque and Holy Family Basilica to assist the injured while in Mombasa, the police teargassed the maternity wing of the Mtwapa Hospital on July 2.
In their presentation before the committee chaired by the Vice chairperson and Saku MP Dido Raso, commissioner Marion Mutugi claimed that those arrested included children who were detained in prison in contravention of the Children’s Act.
Mutugi also narrated how victims who were later released revealed how they were frisked by police officers and robbed of their money and valuables, while business owners complained of looting of their property by some security officers who joined the gangs in the spree.
On deployment of pro-government counter protestors, Mutugi noted that unlike those opposed to the Finance Bill, those hired by the government marched freely alongside the security agencies without being stopped or disrupted.
