(Nairobi) Kenyan police officers are being prosecuted for “crimes against humanity”, including the murder of a baby, during post-election violence in 2017, the prosecutor announced on Friday, denouncing “systematic attacks against the civilian population”.
Posted at 11:48 a.m.
The Kenyan National Commission on Human Rights had documented 94 deaths, 201 cases of sexual violence and more than 300 injuries, attributed mainly to security forces.
A six-month-old baby, Samantha Pendo, had been beaten by police following a raid by security forces in Kisumu, in the west of the country.
“Investigations have established that police officers may be responsible for the murder” of a baby and “other serious human rights violations”, according to the statement from the prosecutor’s office, which did not specify either the identity nor the number of persons concerned.
“The attacks were planned, coordinated and not the result of chance,” he said, referring in particular to “murders, torture, rape and other forms of sexual violence against civilians”.
PHOTO MARCO LONGARI, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE ARCHIVES
A woman covers the body of her son killed by police on August 9, 2017 in Nairobi.
According to the prosecutor’s office, these are “the first cases of crimes against humanity charged under Kenyan national law”.
New UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk has welcomed the decision by Kenyan judicial authorities, saying it is an “important step towards accountability for gross human rights violations.” in Kenya” after the 2017 post-election violence.
Dismantling
In 2017, incumbent President Uhuru Kenyatta was declared the winner of the poll, but his main opponent, Raila Odinga, pointed to fraud and disputed the results.
Demonstrations by supporters of Odinga had been repressed by the security forces.
The prosecutor’s office clarified that the delay in the investigation was due in particular to “the complexity of the crimes”.
Kenyan President William Ruto, elected in August, announced on October 16 the dismantling of the dreaded Special Services Unit (SSU), a police unit created 20 years ago and under fire from critics after cases of enforced disappearances and of murders. The head of state also promised an overhaul of the police.
“We can effectively suppress crimes, monitor, disrupt and apprehend criminals without abducting, torturing, killing or disappearing citizens,” Ruto said.
On October 24, four police officers, members of the SSU, were charged with the disappearance of three men, whose bodies were never found.
Kenyan police have in the past been accused of leading hit squads targeting people investigating alleged human rights abuses by the security services, including lawyers.
According to Missing Voices, which campaigns to expose extrajudicial executions in Kenya, 1,264 people have died at the hands of law enforcement since it began collecting data in 2007.
Few investigations into these disappearances have resulted in convictions.