• Cite accounts of victims who allege police tortured them for information
• Want him, Attorney General to put into effect the National Coroners Service Act and the Prevention of Torture Act, which were enacted in 2017
Image: EZEKIEL AMING'A
Even as new the Police IG takes office today, civil society groups demand that he commits to ending extrajudicial killings in his first 100 days.
They also want IG Hillary Mutyambai to commit to ending human rights violations and enforced disappearances in his first 100 days.
The police reform working group wants Mutyambai and his team to end the use of torture in interrogation by security apparatus under his control.
In a 20 page document the group, which includes Amnesty International, cited the accounts of victims of inhumane treatment by police in the post-April 2015 terrorist attack operations. They alleged they were tortured to extract information.
The document is titled 'The First One Hundred Days: Civil Society Expectations of the Third Inspector General of the National Police Service.'
People alleged they were subjected to relentless beatings, waterboarding, genital mutilation, electric shock, hanging from trees and mock executions to extract confessions.
They said they were also exposed to extreme cold and heat, exposed to stinging ants, denied food and sleep to make them talk.
The activists also cite KNCHR and Ipoa's reports which said Administration Police storm University of Nairobi hostels and academic buildings and beat up students.
Activists want the new IG to liaise with the Attorney General to operationalise the National Coroners Service Act and the Prevention of Torture Act. They were enacted in 2017 but not yet in effect.
They want are yet to be effected.
Further, the group wants Mutyambai to work with the Attorney General, the Law Reform Commission and Parliament to review the Penal Code
They want petty offences declassified and decriminalised to decongest the criminal justice system.
“This would go a long way in ensuring cases move fast in the corridors of justice besides reducing avenues of corruption,” Demas Kiprono from Amnesty International said.
The rights defenders also want Mutyambai to organise public forums as do Interior CS Fred Matiang’i, Director of Public Prosecution Noordin Haji and Director of Criminal Investigations George Kinoti.
Haji, Matiang’i and Kinoti have been on a whirlwind tour of informal settlements in the country where residents complain of police harassment, brutality, killings, and disappearances.
"Mutyambai should]personally attend community dialogues that build and enhance community and police trust to ensure seamless transition of police officers living within the community," the report said.
This would be part of the community policing initiatives instituted by ex-Police IG Joseph Boinnet.
The Police Service should have a better and closer working relationship with oversight bodes like Ipoa, they said.
“Closer cooperation would facilitate meaningful investigations and prosecutions of police officers who break the law or fail to make mandatory reports to Ipoa whenever any killings occur in the line of duty,” the document reads.
Last week, the police reform working group and Amnesty International told MPs that Boinnet had failed to forge a productive working relationship with oversight bodies Ipoa and the DPP, often shielding officers accused of misusing their power.
They want the new IG to commit to enforcing court orders, even those perceived to be negative by the Executive as part of entrenching the independence of his office.
“Boinnet did not do well in enforcing court orders. Under the new boss, court orders must mean something in this country and we will hold him to account” executive director of National Coalition of Human Rights Defenders Kamau Ngugi said.