Killer cops: Pangani police station leads in cases of killings, report shows
Participants arrive for the launch of the Missing Voices 2021 report on extrajudicial killings and enforced disappearance at Nyayo Gardens, Nakuru.
Pangani Police Station has been flagged as a hotbed of extrajudicial killings in a new report that indicates police brutality and enforced disappearances are on the rise in Kenya.
The report by Missing Voices, a consortium of 15 civil society organisations, notes there were 219 cases of police killings and enforced disappearances in 2021 alone.
The cases have increased from 168 in 2020, the report by the consortium that includes Amnesty International, Kenya Human Rights Commission, Haki Afrika, International Justice Mission and the International Consortium of Jurists, reveals.
Of the 219 cases recorded last year, the report indicates 187 cases were police killings and 32 enforced disappearances. It adds that of the 32 disappearances, two victims were later found alive after numerous campaigns by civil society.
Pangani leads the pack of “killer cops”, with Missing Voices documenting 30 cases of killings associated with the station.
“In 2021, every month, with the exception of June, officers from Pangani were accused of murder,” the report states.
This is the third such report by Missing Voices, which has in the past three years documented more than 500 killings by the police. Sadly, most of the victims’ families and friends might never find justice, with a majority saying their cases had been taken back to the inquest stage because of lack of evidence despite availability of witness statements, post-mortem reports and identification of suspects.
“All the accused officers continued operating in the same communities and used unlawful tactics to throw out or weaken the cases,” the report adds.
The civic group said that while in some recent cases police officers have been arrested, the criminal justice system was sluggish in dispensing justice.
Poor implementation of victim and witness protection mechanisms was cited as a major challenge, with many opting not to testify for fear of being targeted.
The consortium demands that the government enacts a law on enforced disappearances or amend existing legislation to criminalise enforced disappearances.
