The ‘airlifts’ were done purposefully to divert attention from the killings of unarmed anti-IEBC protesters and other
police action that provoked violence in the first place
The conduct of police officers has returned to national headlines following last week Monday’s killing of three opposition protesters marching to force changes in the electoral commission.
After Cord leader Raila Odinga’s car was shot at during the previous demonstrations, the police strenuously denied that it was using live bullets. The force went ahead and arrested a journalist who was documenting the use of live ammunition by collecting spent cartridges behind the cops.
Now, after video evidence emerged showing police officers shooting dead a young man in Kisumu, then emptying his pockets, the force has changed its storyline; admitting that officers used live bullets, but only in self defence.
To buttress its arguments about the danger officers face in containing the demos, the force airlifted from Kisumu to Nairobi a number of servicemen who supposedly sustained serious injuries meriting specialised attention.
Now, one can’t deny the harm anti-riot officers are exposed to when demonstrations turn violent. However, journalists who covered the story of the ‘injured’ officers have made it clear that their airlifting was part of a cynical PR exercise.
Most of the officers, from their insignia, hold senior ranks and were most unlikely to have been in the frontline of action. The officers had the same type of injury on the left arm. They walked in a manner that didn’t indicate any pain in the affected arms or even other parts of the body. What’s more, none had attended any medical facility in Kisumu, even for first aid, before their airlifting.
These ‘airlifts’ were also unprecedented for a force that offers specialised treatment only for the critically injured officers, often from terrorist battlefronts like Mandera and Somalia. Many officers get shot every so often in combat with armed bandits in such cattle rustling zones like Turkana, Samburu and West Pokot, yet they are never airlifted for any specialised treatment.
The ‘airlifts’ were done purposefully to divert attention from the killings of unarmed protesters and other police action that provoked violence in the first place. Take Kibera for example, the police locked down the slum for most of Monday. Residents were not allowed to leave the slum after 9am, because police commanders suspected they would join the Cord demonstrations.
Anyone who has observed the demos ought to have known that at the maximum only a few thousand people have participated. Even if most the protestors come from Kibera, which isn’t true, it was senseless for the police to put the entire slum, hundreds of thousands of people, under siege to prevent a few who might have desired to join the demos.
The police force of course knew Kibera residents wouldn’t take such blanket punishment lying down, and had deployed massively for the confrontations that were expected to follow. The officers went around the estate brutalising people and throwing teargas canisters into homes. No property was destroyed in Kibera, repudiating the force’s claims that its was protecting property.
It is a sign of troubled days ahead that no senior official has condemned the police conduct and shootings.