Police carried out at least 803 extrajudicial killings between 2013 and 2015, the Social Justice Working Group reported on Friday.
The group, which comprises activists and relatives of victims, said it compiled all documented deaths reported by the media in the period.
There were 308 in 2013, 418 in 2014 and 77 in 2015.
The group launched a month-long campaign for an end to extrajudicial killings and forced disappearances of youths in informal settlements.
The SabaSaba March For Our Lives campaign will culminate in a rally on July 7 at Kamukunji grounds in Nairobi, where the group will present petitions to the United Nations, African Union and the government.
“Our communities have suffered for so long in silence and life has become unbearable. Police kill us, mothers are left without sons while others are left widowed, with the responsibility of raising their children without fathers,” Wilfred Olal, the convener, said during the event at Mathere Social Justice Centre.
The working group is made up of civil societies, victims of police brutality and their kin, who are drawn from Mathare, Dandora, Kayole, Kamukunji and Githurai.
“We have come together, as the voices of our communities, to demand an end to extrajudicial killings, that investigations be carried out and perpetrators brought to book,” John Mulinga from the Kamukunji Human Rights Defenders, said.
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Anti-riot police teargas protesters on Uhuru Highway in Nairobi, February 13, 2014. /PATRICK VIDIJA
"ROGUE OFFICERS SILENCING VICTIMS"
The group claimed the police officers responsible for the summary execution of youth in the informal settlements are known to them.
They said, however, that the officers intimidate witnesses into remaining silent.
“Rashid, Galgalo and Wambugu ... those are the police officers frustrating us,” said Catherine (not her real name), a mother who lost two sons soon after the August 9, 2017 polls.
She said they were shot as they fled from the officers.
“They target young boys. If you are well dressed they shoot you. To them, you are a criminal,” she said.
“I don’t want to reveal my name because Rashid threatens us openly telling us 'nyinyi wamama mnapenda sana mdomo na kujifanya mnajua sheria. Siku yenyu itafika (You women enjoy talking and acting like you know the law. Your day is coming)'."
Ahmed Rashid came to the limelight when a video clip emerged in April last year showing him executing two young men on a street in Eastleigh.
He goes by the moniker 'Hessy wa Kayole' on social media and is known to post pictures of the criminals he executes.
Lucy Wambui, 25, was left a single mother after her husband Christopher Maina was shot dead by the infamous Rashid on February 21 last year.
She said her husband was picked up in broad daylight and shot a short distance from a house whose water tank he was installing. He was killed on suspicion that he was a thug.
“He pleaded with the police officer not to shoot him. He told him to arrest him and lock him up because he wanted to see his unborn child but the cop didn’t listen. He shot him,” she said.
Wambui said a witness commonly known as Johntes recorded statements of the killings but that in January this year, he too was gunned down by the same officer alongside another witness at Mlango Kubwa.
“This is a clear demonstration of how those tasked with maintaining law and order are discharging their duties with impunity. It is also an indication of the state’s non-commitment to comprehensively addressing systematic gross human rights violations,” Olai said.
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"UHURU'S APOLOGY POINTLESS"
Catherine downplayed President Uhuru’s gesture of asking for forgiveness during the State of the Nation address on May 2, saying that did not take away the pain of victims and their families.
“If you want to ask for forgiveness from someone, you go to him in person and say 'I am sorry'," she said.
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Volunteers under the working group said that 10-15 young men are reported missing or killed by police every month.
In May alone, they said they documented 12 extrajudicial killings of youths in Dandora.
The group regretted that out of hundreds of police killings reported across the city, only two have been successfully prosecuted.
These included the case against four police officers accused of killing lawyer Willy Kimani, his client and a taxi driver in July 2016.
The other is the April 5 conviction of Titus Musila, alias Katitu, to 15 years in jail for killing a suspect in Githurai in 2013.
Police put out a fire that was lit after a traffic
officer was assaulted by protesting hawkers at the Globe Cinema roundabout in Nairobi, September 16, 2013. /HEZRON NJOROGE
On May 21, the Independent Policing Oversight Authority (IPOA) released a report covering the six years it has been in office.
It said out of the 9,000 cases it received from victims, it only managed to secure four convictions.
IPOA chairman Macharia Njeru said they concluded 752 investigations, monitored 151 police operations and submitted 164 recommendations.
"About 64 cases are in various stages of hearings in court,” he said, adding some
103 files were awaiting action by the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions.
According to IPOA, police account for 3.3 per cent of deaths.
In March 2017, the Ministry of Interior and Coordination of National Government, which is responsible for policy, could not respond to the Star's inquiries on whether it had a policy to run execution squads among national police officers in security operations.
It also didn't say why officials are reluctant to reprimand or put individuals officers accused of operating outside the law to account.
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