Covid-19 in Kenya: The Police Brutality Crisis
When the government of Kenya announced the first case of Coronavirus in March 2020, numerous measures were put in place to curb the spread of the virus. One of the measures enforced was a nationwide curfew.
The curfew magnified an issue that has plagued Kenya for years: police brutality.
Kenya has one of the highest rates of deaths from police brutality in the world since the advent of Coronavirus. The police killed more than 17 people and injured many more since March. (The government extended the curfew from 7 pm to 9 pm on June 6.)
Kenyans have died or been severely injured by officers as they enforced the curfew that was put in place to protect those same Kenyans from the Coronavirus.
Historically, Kenya’s police have struggled with issues such as excessive force and corruption. Reforms have been initiated numerous times but have failed to yield fruits as police continue to be corrupt and to use excessive force on citizens.
The mainstream media was silent on the issue for quite a while. Kenyan netizens were furious to see international publications and media outlets such as Vice reporting the brutality while local media shied away. Afterwards, local media ramped up coverage on the issue.
When police killed a man known by many as Vaite in the Mathare area of Nairobi, there was an uproar on social media. Soon after, the Kenya Police Service spokesman, Charles Owino, appeared on television in an interview saying the Kenya Police is mandated to protect. In reality that is not the case.
In the interview, the spokesman admitted that it is hard to administer individual discipline to more than 120,000 police. The fact that brutality is hard to account for is a tough reality for Kenyans and a reflection of how the Kenyan government treats its people.
Over a week after the interview, a video surfaced on social media of a woman, Mercy Cherono, who was tied to a motorcycle and whipped by two police officers. The 21-year-old woman suffered from broken bones and tissue injuries as a result. The officers were arrested but will the government take action against them?
In a bid to be a voice against this issue, a few Kenyans created an Instagram page called @policebrutalityke. According to one of the founders of the page, the aim was to raise awareness on individual cases of police brutality that the general public might not see, or that were missed by the mainstream media. “We made it to increase visibility for those that might not read the news and be aware,” they said.
The account bio states that they document police brutality. The account content includes pictures of victims of brutality, infographics and news updates.
Also, @policebrutalityke has many posts that call followers to action, through signing petitions and participating in a myriad of initiatives, all which emphasize the role of the everyday citizen in fighting for social change.
The founder stated: “It became important to highlight the various ways in which people could help to make a difference to facilitate social change. We highlight the calls to action created by several social justice centres that have worked to bring an end to police brutality for a very long time.”
One of the calls to actions is the 12 Hours of Calls for 40 Million lives that runs every Wednesday. It involves calling and sending countless emails to the Ministry of Interior and National Government and the Cabinet Secretary in a bid to demand them to play their role in ending violence by the police.
The founder explains that police brutality is a systemic issue. They said: “Kenya’s police force was initially created by the British to control Africans — it wasn’t an institution that was to serve the people. And as a result, it still has a style and approach that reflects this. For instance, police officers are trained to suppress and not support. Their training is military in style.”
This initiative and many others should empower Kenyans to stand up against police brutality and other issues that plague them, through their platforms and using their voices. We cannot depend solely on the representatives that we elected to a system that had failed us. Each of us must take a stand and speak on the ills that face us as a society.
Coronavirus is already killing our people. Why should the police also have a hand in sending Kenyans to their death?
