It's too early to see the government's efforts to end police killings and forced disappearances, Human Rights Watch East Africa director Otsieno Namwaya has said.
Namwaya was speaking during the launch of the Human Rights Watch overview of human rights trends in Africa in 2022 in Nairobi.
He said that he is not sure that anything has changed regarding human rights violations by the police.
“While President William Ruto made commitments towards ending police killings and forced disappearances in the country, we are yet to see any changes,” he said.
The President had also gone further to disband the Directorate of Criminal’s Special Services Unit (SSU) which he termed a ‘death squad.’
Namwaya said that even past presidents had made similar commitments in disbanding units only to form others that repeated the same atrocities.
“President Kibaki came in to disband the Flying Squad and name the Recce Squad in its place only for them to do the same things their predecessor did,” he said.
On whether Ruto should appoint a commission of inquiry into the disbanded SSU’s actions, Namwaya said a public inquest into their actions has already been made.
“The only thing we need right now is for the police to cooperate with the inquest so we can get to the bottom of the matter," he said.
