What does it say about the state of administration of justice in Kenya that even policemen are unwilling to go through the rigmarole of arraigning armed felons in court and instead, choose to blow their heads off in daylight? The Commissioner of Police has warned all armed criminals that his Police Force will not relent in going after them, regardless of the public opprobrium heaped on his head for 'extra-judicial' killings. Indeed, over the past one month, it seems the cops have stepped up their war against armed criminals to a level last seen in 2006, what with young men suspected of belonging to armed gangs and proscribed sects being picked up and later found riddled with bullet-holes in our various municipal mortuaries. The human rights campaigners have raised the issue of the unconstitutionality of executing criminals without the bother of a trial and have rightly pointed a spotlight on the police for this abuse of the criminals' human rights. However, they still refuse to accept that the Kenya Police Force operates in a highly dangerous and politicised environment, where sometimes men and women in high positions usually intervene to 'save one of their own community' from the unwanted attentions of the forces of law and order.
Anyone who has been on the receiving end of a car-jacking or armed robbery will not spare a thought for the three men executed in broad daylight by the police this past week. They will remember with horror of their experiences in the hands of a ruthless gang that took their hard-earned property at the barrel of a gun, using intimidation and violence to get their way. They will remember with anguish that the police warned them that the case would never be solved, because the Kenya Police lacks modern facilities in its campaign against crime, especially violent crime. They will not be sorry to see the bodies of suspected carjackers and armed felons being paraded in front of TV cameras after an 'encounter' with officers from the Flying Squad. Instead, they will cheer on the forces of law and order, whether or not they observe the niceties of the constitution or the Police Standing Orders.
Kenya faces myriad challenges, all calling for hard-to-come-by resources. In the competing attention of various national priorities, the forces of law and order tend to get the short end of the stick. Billions will be spent on the implementation of the constitution, especially in the establishment of the various constitutional commissions as will be spent on the drought afflicting parts of the country. Billions more will be spent on the National Assembly and the infrastructure programme across the country. While the Kenya police and Administration Police have received billions to provide them with habitable homes and new equipment, not much seems to have gone into equipping them to be more effective in the prevention, detection, investigation and prosecution of offences, especially armed crime. As a result, while many more policemen now live in proper housing and carry effective weapons and drive around in serviceable vehicles, their training does not seem to equip them to be in a position to competently bring armed felons to justice. The frustrations they face when dealing with armed criminals manifest themselves in the spate of extra-legal executions that we are witness to on a day-to-day basis. Given our inordinate preoccupation with the Hague Six and the 2012 presidential contest, is it a wonder that the Kenya Police are determined to hold their own against gangsters at the expense of the Bill of Rights?
Instead of the Kenya National Commission for Human Rights and its fellow travellers concentrating only on The Hague and the imminent demolition of the Standard Group HQ, it is time they started concentrating on the implementation of the Ransley Report on Police Reforms as well as the reform of the judiciary and the Prisons Service. All these things are interlinked and reform of one institution without reforming the other two will not be of benefit to Kenyans. Only when these reforms are implemented in full will it be possible for the police to retain faith in the administration of justice system and men and women convicted and imprisoned for violent crimes may be rehabilitated so as to reduce their chances of recidivism. Perhaps then, extra-legal executions may become a thing of the past and Kenyans can go about their affairs without looking over their shoulders in fear for their lives or property.
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