By Joab Apollo
Kenyan authorities may have yielded to weeks of public anger and pressure over the brutal murder of two brothers by police officers, but a populace given to a game of musical chairs by the state remains uneasy.
Six police officers suspected to have murdered in cold blood the now famous Kianjokama brothers have not just been suspended, but also face murder charge, something that could condemn them to life imprisonment if convicted.
The Independent Police Oversight Authority (IPOA) recommended that the officers be relieved of their duties and be detained for fourteen days pending further investigation into the heart-rending killing. The agency also recommended that the six also surrender their firearms as well as any government equipment or uniform they have in their possession.
“As it stands now, the six officers face a capital offence-murder.” Said IPOA, adding that it will press more charges like negligence in the performance of duty.
The six police officers, Corporal Consolata Njeri, Constable Lilian Cherono, Constable Martin Wanyama, Constable Nicholas Sang’ and Constable James Mwaniki have consequently been detained on orders by the Director of Public Prosecution Noordin Hajji. This is to avoid witness interference, and even murder, as has been the case in some cases involving police men and women.
Benson Njiru, 23, a law student at Kabarak University, and his brother, Emmanuel Mutura, were murdered on 1st August, 2021, for allegedly violating curfew rules instituted by the Kenyan government to curb the COVID-19 pandemic. Initial reports by the police indicated that the duo jumped out of a speeding police vehicle, but witnesses said they saw the police clobber them with cruelty to the point of falling down.
Police brutality is not new in the East African country. Quite often than not, gun-totting police officers have been left off the hook, for what the courts have always described as “lack of sufficient evidence”, developments that have always been met with public bitterness.
“Any case involving the police is always a lost case. We have lost faith in the country’s criminal Justice system. The system favours the police and the rich. Even in this case it is a matter of wait and see.” Justin Njuguna, a Nairobi resident told this writer.
Will the Kianjokama brothers’ case bring sanity to a rotten police force? It remains a matter of wait and see.