Meteorologia

  • 04 NOVEMBER 2024
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NGOs denounce 118 deaths at the hands of the Kenyan police

A total of 118 people have been killed by Kenyan police in 2023, local and international NGOs said on Thursday, denouncing the "impunity" of the security forces.

NGOs denounce 118 deaths at the hands of the Kenyan police
Notícias ao Minuto

10:48 - 24/04/24 por Lusa

Mundo Quénia

The number of people killed by police dropped from 130 in 2022 to 118 in 2023 (-9.2%), the NGOs said in a report, including Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International Kenya and the Kenyan Missing Voices coalition against police brutality.

“Police officers are rarely held accountable for their role in extrajudicial executions,” the NGOs deplored, denouncing persistent “impunity”.

Police spokeswoman Resila Onyango did not respond to requests for comment from AFP.

Nearly half of the killings (58) occurred “during operations to combat crime” and 45 during “riots”, notably during days of mobilisation against the high cost of living and new taxes organised by the opposition between March and July 2023, the NGOs detailed.

The demonstrations were sometimes accompanied by violence and looting, and the opposition and NGOs accused the police of using excessive force.

“Enforced disappearances” — people detained by the security forces according to their families, who have no news of them and fear they may have been killed — fell by 54.5 percent (10 in 2023 after 22 in 2022), according to the NGOs.

Since his election in 2022, Kenyan President William Ruto has repeatedly said he wants to end police violence and extrajudicial practices.

“It is true we have lost many Kenyans through extrajudicial killings” and “political assassinations,” he said again on Sunday, before affirming that “there will never be extrajudicial killings or political assassinations again”.

Kenyan police have also been accused in the past of running death squads targeting people investigating alleged human rights violations by the security services, including lawyers.

In October 2022, the head of state announced the dismantling of the feared Special Services Unit, created 20 years ago and accused of enforced disappearances and assassinations. He also promised to reform the police force.

According to Missing Voices, 1,350 people have been killed by police since the organisation began collecting data in 2007.

In February 2023, three police officers were sentenced to between 24 years in prison and the death penalty after being found guilty in July of a triple murder with torture in 2016, including that of a lawyer.

Read Also: Pelo menos 32 mortos e mais de 40 mil deslocados após chuvas no Quénia (Portuguese version)

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