As normalcy and civil order begins to rein in gradually across the country well after the supreme court's decision to upheld the results of the October 26 presidential repeat polls in which the incumbent president Uhuru Kenyatta won virtually unopposed.Serious conversations about police brutality and the pace in which police reforms are being carried out are beginning to surface in the public domain.Since the start of the year especially periods before the August 8 general elections and the aftermath of the elections scores of alleged extrajudicial killings and physical assault on harmless civilians by the police have been on the surge .Multiple independent inquiries by human rights watchdog organisations,the Amnesty International and the Human Rights Watch document that as of October , at least 67 people were killed by gunshots fired by the police during the pro-reforms protests by opposition supporters across the country.As killings of harmless civilians was being executed by police. Media houses,civil society organisations and the general public remarkably kept a close watch and surveillance of the killings which is why the conversation around the whole spectrum of police brutality should be an inclusive and an honest conversation about other ways in which the police can restrain themselves from using force as a resort in restoring civil order.At the hallmark of police brutality were disturbing and sad revelations that rogue police officers fired shots that caused serious physical injuries and death to baby Samantha Pendo and Stephanie Moraa. On the trail of this killings was the blatant abuse of policing powers by police officers who used excessive force to quell a student unrest at the University of Nairobi and in which scores of students suffered physical injuries and sexual harassment.
As some of this unfortunate events occurred quite surprisingly was the chilly silent response from government operatives and security machinery.To counter claims of police brutality security bureaucrats embarked on a campaign to discredit some of the evidence brought foward by the general public.So what has been the driving force for police brutality and why does it seem entrenched in the national police? An independent and conscious analysis of facts progressively suggests that the retrogressive politics anchored on oppressing and silencing dissent voices and limitation of civil liberties is behind the surge in cases of police brutality.The police like many economic, social and political institutions have been captured by cartel operatives who seem to be determined in directing unproportional and selective force to dissenting voices in the country.Behind the cases of brutal acts are well choreographed public press statements explaining why force is in fact used, an alignment to the retrogressive age old type of politics deeply embedded on our policing fabric.
The national police service in its current regime exactly plays the role of a villain for the cartels who are keen on maintaining the status quo,evading good governance and accountability hence its use of the police as a stamp and a smoke screen used to smoke out threats to their interests.
So how do we reduce cases of police brutality the answers to this question can be difficult but it is certainly possible to reform our police service to one that is proffessionally run and one in which public confidence can be bestowed on.A quick and a clear way to police reforms would be to disengage the police service from our retrogressive politics and instead entrench progressive politics that are centered on respect for human rights and maximum restraint on the possible use of force on dissenting civilians.A long time strategy to police reforms would also involve training police officers on democratic values and modern policing issues and extension of training time frame in the national police academy this would help in imparting skills that are workable and efficient in this times of modern policing where use of force is increasingly becoming an obsolete method in tackling instances of law breaking and crime prevention.Finally civilian populations should also be trained on peaceful and law abiding avenues of expressing dissent to certain political views as comparative studies on police brutality seem to suggest that there is a direct correlation between violent political expression of opposing ideas and a equal forceful repression of such ideas by police.
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