The International Justice Mission, one of the NGOs at the vanguard of the fight against police brutality and abuse of power and defenders of the defenceless, has released a damning report about the appalling culture of Kenya’s police force.
This report must form the basis of a thorough review that ought to culminate in the root and branch reform of the virulent service.
The police service is irreversibly broken. The only cure is to demolish the murderous and malignant edifice and build it up afresh. The service is unfit for purpose in a modern democratic society in which every individual and institution bestowed with authority must be accountable to the people.
In the landmark report, IJM have established, after interviewing thousands of victims of abuse, that ethnic profiling is the order of the day. Sex workers are easy prey and investors in bar business are robbed through endless bribes daily.
That, no doubt, cannot be the work of a police service. That’s the mafia at work under the sinister protection of the blue uniform. None of that is new.
The shocking truth remains an executive that finds nothing wrong with a brutal, murderous, corrupt police force and stands with the police against the people.
Quote of the day: “Distrust and caution are the parents of security.” —US Founding Father Benjamin Franklin wrote “There never was a good war or bad peace” in a letter on September 11, 1783
