Killing Robbery Suspects: An Acceptable Trend?

[abdulmote]

Lately many would have noticed the emerging trend and increased frequency of killing the robbery suspects by our police force. For the last few weeks, hardly a day passes without reading of a number being killed, especially in Nairobi. I am also aware that our politicians were about to deliberate on passing a law that would allow the police the right of shooting to kill, under circumstances yet to be cleared.

I appreciate the fact that kenyans are suffering a lot under the weight of increased violent crimes and especially the rampant robberies committed by sections of our young citizens. Any victim could be forgiven when supporting such a measure, which if looked at subjectively, it becaomes easy to justify such a barbaric measure. Armed robbers can certainly be ruthless in their acts and many lives have been lost or destroyed as the innocent law abiding citizens encounter such experience almsot on daily bases.

What I find disturbing is the fact that increasingly I am reading of suspects being killed, even where one would imgaine they could have been arrested and sent to face the law without losing their lives unjustly. What is happening, so to speak, is that much as we would like the law to be our shield and defender, our country is in a way allowing the police force to be the Prosecuter, the Judge and the Executioner, without a second thought on the possibility of there being innocent victims of such a trend and in the name of justice.

Having said that, I think our government has the responsibility of pursuing a lasting solution to counter this menace of rampant violent crimes, without allowing another form of serious crimes to mature our cities into undesirable killing fields. Despite our prefeence of cheering the killings of these untried suspects before our courts of law, I do not think by opting to kill such in droves every day is likely to assist in creating a peaceful and secure atmosphere for all to exist in harmony.

Twenty in less than a month!

[mank]

Jan 4, 2014 19:42:20 GMT 3 abdulmote said:

What is happening, so to speak, is that much as we would like the law to be our shield and defender, our country is in a way allowing the police force to be the Prosecuter, the Judge and the Executioner, without a second thought on the possibility of there being innocent victims of such a trend and in the name of justice..

Abdulmote,

If we were living in the police environment you describe in the early 90s, I would have fallen victim one day. My friends and I were "randa-randaring" in Nairobi one day, dressed in overcoats (imagine campus guys in the cold wee hours of a morning, irie on miraaa-cle erb and therefore conversing in lazy volumes and only when absolutely necessary - gives an idea what the cops saw: that heavenly essence is highly misread by those who have never been there!).

These thug-looking cops pounced on us, and while we tried to run away (because in our view they were thugs), we were lucky they caught us. They were very surprised when they found out that we were students, not robbers. Before they did, they had narrated to me how far they had been tracking us, and how they even knew what shop we were destined to break into!

While a faulted the cops for their style when they commanded us to stop (and still would do), over time I have been ever grateful for the kind of cops they were. I believe many in similar situations have subsequently pumped lead into suspects like us that morning, and given "indisputable evidence that they caught robbers in the act after which a fatal confrontation ensued."

Kenyans have no idea how many people die in innocence when only the killer remains to give a version of the circumstances under which they were brought down, against a low burden of proof. There should be absolutely no allowance for the police to kill suspects, except in genuine life-threatening confrontations.

[kamalet]

Abdulmote

A couple of years ago, a child hood friend of mine was carjacked and in the process shot several times and died three weeks later. Because of his station in life and having been with him prior to the carjacking and shooting incident, i was required to make a statement to the police.

I met some very interesting guys at the CID office of the police station I was having my statement recorded. They showed me pictures of criminals on their wanted list and the officers were expressing their frustration with our judicial system as some had been released on bond by the court whilst one had actually escaped from a police cell and they were saying the officers on duty were not even reprimanded. Then they went into the question of what the public wanted them to do when they encountered an armed criminal. I was ready to agree that such armed criminals will not lay down their guns and plead for mercy - they will want to get away by shooting their way out of the situation. Any criminal holding a firearm presents himself for armed action when confronting a police officer.

But then there are those that are shot even when they were not armed. The officer shooting such a person needs punishment.

In the new Police Law, the oversight authority is supposed to investigate every shooting incident to ensure that police officers had probable cause to use a firearm. That is the law that needs enforcing!

[jakaswanga]

Abdul ---greetings for the new year first---,

I was waiting with a bit of mischief, waylaying this thread until it died down somewhat, before derailing it. You see Kenya is very fluid now, and I was sure an event would quickly turn up which would provide the opportunity!

THE SHOOT TO KILL ORDERS! AND WETANGULA RUNNING AROUND SCARED, OR CRYING WOLF!?

We have a fresh constitution, billed as one of the world’s best. But what is the reality? I think the distance between official rhetoric and actual facts on the ground, is a canyon deep enough to sink the ideals of the republic ---ideals like justice for all; all are equal before the law; all have a right to a fair trial. Yes Abdul, a fair :Dtrial [hahaha], not a quick extra-judicial execution!

As it is, with Chief of Police David Kimaiyo asking for even more [shoot-to-kill] powers so that he can contain the waves of crime, the separation of powers which marks a modern legal order, is a bridge too far for us and our state-of-the-civilisation constitution! The police will be prosecutor, juror, and executioner. There is even a new shoot to kill unit in the pipepline, an urban rapid response squad. We used to have it as the FYING SQUAD, then Kwekwe! Tell me what is new, Evans Gicheru or Willy Mutunga! ---Shoot to kill is the creed of tough crime fighters in the republic.

Few are protesting. On the contrary, the urban public are desperate and lauding, and in rural areas, vigilantes are on the up, fighting crime with machete blows. [basic law and order as opposed to lofty but irrelevant constitution]

When politicians of Kenya go into ritual rigmaroles of waving the constitution to make one or other point, I therefore smile, much indulged by their innocence. For there is an innocence to duplicity, an innocence embedded in the assumption that the injured party shall continue in his or her position of impotence.
---The Kenyan politician believes he can get away with anything at the expense of Wanjiku. Neither of a conscience to differentiate right from wrong is he endowed, neither of fear of consequences that can act as deterrence to immorality is he possessed.
Kenyans are shot dead every day by police ---I kept the tally for the later half of December as given by newspapers and it was quite a harvest of bodies [summarily gunned down by the police]! but for Wetangula’s car hitting a signpost , everybody is yelling it should be investigated to the bottom!? Really? Why not for all the other random victims of police bullets? What is so special about Wetangula!?

O yes, I forgot! Wetangula is a senator! And a senator of Rome, however corrupt, is still nobility! And the life of a noble counts a hundred fold the life of a commoner!

BUT THERE IS A GREEN GRASS UNDER THE SNAKE! [Gen. Mulili speak, Francis Imbuga].

Now, who are the real robbers of Kenya? Asked coldly, with a heart of granite. Asked without mirth:
Who are they real robbers who deserve the shoot to kill on the spot which a national consensus now affirms should be?

If we should we start with the Kroll report? Detail the Angloleasing? The Goldenberg scandal? or the rest of the robberies that worked out to 25% GDP and nearly costed John Githong’o his life? Wont out kill-list boast quite a noble Roman!?

So these tough cops in town, and the soon to be reconstituted kwekwe [under a new name of course] shooting petty thieves who are mainly young desperate men, have their guns aimed the wrong way, mostly. A real tough cop and crime fighter with a dose of patriotism in his blood should have no problem using Wetangula’s head as target practice. The Tokyo embassy scam is enough reason!

Can it be argued in law!? A shoot to kill policy on the corrupt barons of Kenya looting the state treasury and bleeding the tax-payer to death?

This is why I took a long read at Obama’s legal commando team, specifically assembled to underwrite in legal argument, the veracity of of Obama’s kill-list.

I gathered from the New York times, that President Obama has a KILL-LIST of America’s worst enemies, aka terrorists. And every Thursday morning, during breakfast, he as POTUS, on behalf of the American people, goes through this list with a red pen. If your name is circled in red, you are history. The CIA ignites a predator drone armed with hellfire missiles, , and you shall cease to exist.
The crack team of lawyers then straightens it up with the constitution, should some of its clauses show qualms.

So I was thinking, even if the police executed Wetangula, surely a crack team of Kenyan lawyers can square it with our great constitution. Tokyo embassy business made him an enemy of the people. Next.

I am supporter of the shoot to kill Abdul, it is just that I have a different set of targets in mind for the police killer-squads!