Altercation with cops will always cost your life, says lobby

An altercation with police officers will always cost your life, a report by a human rights organisation has said. 

Missing Voices, a group of some 15 human rights entities, says that in all cases where unarmed civilians engaged police officers in personal altercation, death of the civilian was the outcome. The report was released last week.

The report, which monitored police use of force in 2022, says most men have a tendency to engage police officers in a fight.

In six cases it monitored, the confrontation was largely personal encounters and the officers killed their challengers.

Reached for comment, police spokesperson Resila Onyango said she had not seen the report, hence could not comment on it. This is despite the Star sharing a copy with her. 

Young men are currently engaged in confrontation with police officers in the ongoing public protests by led Azimio la Umoja leader Raila Odinga. 

Some of them have been shot and others injured by action attributed to police officers. 

Listing the cases by specific details, including the name of the civilians, the report show the incidents are spread across the country.

“Simon Thuku and Pontianas Ikumoli were killed in Nakuru and Meru on February 16 and 22 respectively. Samuel Mugo was killed in Zimmerman, Nairobi on May 16, 2022.

"The fourth victim is Stephen Osedo, who was killed on November 13, 2022, in Umoja estate, Nairobi, by a police officer after an alleged argument," the report says. 

The fifth victim was a boda boda rider named Elvis Baya Thoya, 28, who confronted an officer in Malindi resulting into his killing.

“[The] boda boda rider was shot and killed by a police officer in Malindi on December 22, 2022,” the report says. 

Available information at the time showed that the officer, David Mugiri, who manned Malindi airport, had been ferried by the rider to his place of work that morning but a dispute arose between them regarding payment.

The rider confronted the armed officer who in turn pulled his gun and shot Thoya at close range, killing him.

The officer later took his own life by shooting himself under his chin at a thicket adjacent to the airport.  

“The sixth victim is Franklin Mong’are, a 23-year-old businessman who Administration Police officers allegedly killed at the Kitaru chief’s office in Nyamira county,” the report says. 

The report also shows a new pattern is emerging where police are allegedly increasingly profiling riders as thugs and summarily killing them. 

Boda boda operators have complained in the past that they were the subject of harassment by police officers. 

“Police killings and enforced disappearances are evolving, and new groups have become targets. For instance, while people living in informal urban areas were the primary targets in the past, groups like boda boda riders are increasingly becoming new targets,” the report reads.

Overall, the document shows the lobby documented 152 cases of police killings and enforced disappearances in 2022.

These included 130 cases of police killings and 22 cases of enforced disappearances.

This, compared to 2021 when 186 cases of police killings and 36 cases of enforced disappearances were documented, indicates that police killings dropped by 30.1 per cent and disappearances by 38 per cent.

In terms of months, January 2022 recorded the highest police killings, with 28 cases from 11 incidents.

The second highest month was July, with 21 police killings arising from 12 incidents.

The third was in February with 13 police killings arising from nine incidents. No enforced disappearance was recorded in April, July, November and December 2022.

On enforced disappearances, June had the highest number of enforced disappearance cases at six. In June, however, four of the six victims were later found dead.