US accuses Kenya of unlawful killings

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Photo|FILE An Administration Police officer responds to the call of duty. Cases of professional misconduct have manifested themselves in many ways, the most worrying of them being the alarming frequency with which the officers are turning to their weapons as the choice means of sorting out disputes at their work place, homes and social places. 

By KEVIN J KELLY NATION Correspondent in New York (kevinjaykelley@gmail.com)
Posted  Saturday, May 26  2012 at  21:44

Kenya’s security forces engage in unlawful killings, torture and rape, the US State Department has said in its annual human rights report.

The Kenya section of the global survey for 2011, also cites “police corruption, harsh and life-threatening prison conditions; arbitrary arrest and detention” and numerous other abuses on the part of state agents.

“There were reports that persons died while in police custody or shortly thereafter, some as a result of torture,” the State Department said on Thursday.

The new report was issued in Washington on the same day the family of a 28-year-old British tourist charged that he had beenbeaten to death by police in Diani.

Specific cases

One of the specific cases of alleged abuse cited by the State Department involved a 16-year-old boy who died at the Kabete police station on September 16, hours after being arrested in connection with a robbery.

“The Independent Medico-Legal Unit, a credible human rights NGO, conducted a post-mortem of the body and established that the young man died of blows and associated trauma,” the report says. “Police did not conduct any investigation into the death by year’s end.”

Impunity at all levels of government continued to be a serious problem, the report adds. “The government took only limited action against security forces suspected of unlawful killings, and impunity in cases of corruption was common.”

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Although the State Department’s findings on Kenya are overwhelmingly negative, the report does point to “free and fair” voting in the 2010 referendum that approved a Constitution that makes “significant institutional and structural changes to the government.”