An outspoken critic of the Kenyan government's alleged practice of extra-judicial killings has been shot dead along with a colleague in Nairobi.
Oscar Kamau Kingara published a report last year, which said that 8,040 young Kenyans have been executed or tortured to death since 2002 in a police crackdown on a gang known as the Mungiki.
He was shot dead just hours after a government spokesman accused their group of aiding the gang. Many Kenyan human rights activists hold the government responsible the shooting. A student was shot dead by police during protests shortly after Kingara's assassination.
Kingara’s murder comes one week after the United Nations Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions said that police abuses in Kenya were both systematic and widespread. Philip Alston called for Kenya's top policeman and the attorney general to resign for failing to address police impunity. He also described the Kenyan police as a law unto themselves and said they often killed with impunity.
The Rapporteur said that Mr Kingara’s death "constitutes a major threat to the rule of law, regardless of who might be responsible for the killing."
Philip Alston visited Kenya in late February, where he said that he had received “overwhelming testimony of the existence of systematic, widespread, and carefully planned extrajudicial executions undertaken on a regular basis by the Kenyan police."
He said: "I have received detailed and convincing reports of countless individual killings. It is clear from the many interviews that I conducted that the police are free to kill at will."
IANSA member Ochieng Adala said that the majority of Kenyans accepted the findings of the report and also believed that the chief of police and attorney general should be removed from their positions. Mr Adala said that the Prime Minister and the Minister for Constitutional Affairs said that the government welcomed the recommendations of the Rapporteur and would consider them in the context of the ongoing comprehensive reforms. He added: “People in Kenya are bound to fear for their own safety if the police, the very people who are supposed to protect them, are condemned for extra-judicial killings. Kenya must hold to the rule of law – all citizens, including criminals have a right to their day in court, not summary execution by firearms.”
Augusta Muchai from the Institute of Security Studies, Nairobi Office added:
"It must also be recognised that thousands of Kenyans continue to suffer under the outlawed Mungiki sect . While the UN Special Rapporteur's recommendations on the police are welcomed, civil society groups must also call for independent investigations on why the outlawed sect has continued to thrive despite the police's determination to stem out the group and cease its cruel activities against innocent Kenyans."
Law enforcement officials are entrusted with great power, and must use their weapons responsibly, as outlined by existing international agreements: the UN Code of Conduct for Law Enforcement Officials and the UN Basic Principles on the Use of Force and Firearms by Law Enforcement Officials.
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