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Kenyan police launch inquiry after officers filmed beating protester Kenyan police launch inquiry after officers filmed beating protester
(about 1 hour later)
Kenya’s police chief has ordered an internal investigation a day after officers were seen viciously beating an unresponsive fallen protester as they broke up demonstrations. Kenyan police have launched an internal investigation into brutality after graphic video of riot police beating and kicking an apparently unconscious man on the sidelines of an election protest caused outrage.
Police fired teargas and beat opposition demonstrators with truncheons on Monday to stop them storming the offices of the electoral commission in Nairobi. In the latest of several protests over electoral rules by opposition activists who say their leader will be denied a fair chance at next year’s election, police fired teargas and beat demonstrators with truncheons on Monday to stop them storming the offices of the electoral commission in Nairobi.
Some of the demonstrators, who were demanding the dissolution of the commission, threw stones at police. Footage appeared to show officers chasing a man in a green T-shirt as he fled a building near the commission’s headquarters. After he stumbled to the ground, they laid into him with truncheons and boots.
One officer, apparently oblivious to journalists recording the violence, attacked so hard that part of his body armour fell off. After a few seconds, the police were shown sprinting away, leaving the young man limp and unmoving on the ground.
Related: Kenyan police fire teargas during protest over election watchdogRelated: Kenyan police fire teargas during protest over election watchdog
Joseph Boinnet, the inspector general of police, said: “I condemn the lawlessness visited on the public by rioters yesterday and an internal inquiry is under way to determine whether any police officer broke any law while quelling the riots.”.Joseph Boinnet, the inspector general of police, said: “I condemn the lawlessness visited on the public by rioters yesterday and an internal inquiry is under way to determine whether any police officer broke any law while quelling the riots.”.
A video of the incident shows a man in a green sweatshirt running from police before falling to the ground. Three officers then take turns striking him with batons and kicking his motionless body as it lies slumped on the kerb. There were unconfirmed reports in local media that the man later died from his injuries. The victim, who survived the attack, was later named as Boniface Mosoti, a passerby from a satellite town who had only become caught up in the day’s turmoil because he had come to the central business district for a job interview.
Hundreds of protesters were prevented from reaching the offices of the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission by police wearing body armour and carrying shields. There have been several such protests in recent weeks. Mosoti told the Daily Nation he had not attended the protests, but had run into trouble while he was heading to the bus terminal for his journey home. “Several police officers beat me up with batons and left me there. I was helpless,” the newspaper quoted him as saying.
“The officers who have violated the rights of citizens by their brutality must face both disciplinary process and criminal prosecution,” said Isaac Okero, the president of the Law Society of Kenya, condemning the “bludgeoning of an apparently unconscious and unresponsive, unarmed man”. Kenyan police have a poor rights record and regularly top the list in surveys of the least trusted professionals.
Raila Odinga, a former prime minister who lost his bid for the presidency in 2013, accuses the election commission of bias towards the current president, Uhuru Kenyatta, and has demanded new commissioners be named before elections in August 2017. But even by their standards, the apparent treatment of protesters before rolling cameras on Monday was shocking. Other videos showed police chasing after protesters, beating and kicking them as they tried to flee.
Kenyatta beat Odinga by more than 800,000 votes to win the presidency in 2013. The Kenyan National Commission for Human Rights said it had launched an investigation into the attacks, warning that the use of force by the state should only be a “last resort” .
Odinga and civil society groups accused the electoral commission of a series of irregularities that they said skewed the results. “The commission is particularly dismayed by the gory scenes witnessed yesterday … where demonstrators who had already been subdued were subjected to gruesome violence by the police,” it said in a statement.
The election nonetheless passed off peacefully, in contrast to the country’s disputed 2007 elections, which degenerated into fierce inter-ethnic violence that killed more than 1,100 people after Odinga’s supporters challenged his defeat by Mwai Kibaki. “When police disobey the law with such corrosive impunity, they lose legitimacy as law enforcers and alienate themselves from the very public they are mandated to serve.”
The next election is shaping up as a rematch of 2013, with Odinga, 71, aiming to unseat Kenyatta, 54. After police moved on, journalists who had recorded the assault on Mosoti put down their cameras and helped carry him to a safer area, he said, and an uncle who lived nearby eventually came to collect him.
“At this time all the country’s leaders, now more than ever, must engage in dialogue that will help keep this nation peaceful,” Okero said. He had spent the night at his uncle’s home without any medical attention for his injuries, because the family were worried about the cost, but on Tuesday morning an MP took him to hospital, he said.
“They must desist from inflammatory statements that appear to sanction either excessive and violent police action or criminal conduct by citizens. They owe this to all of us.” There have been several similar protests in recent weeks by supporters of opposition leader Raila Odinga, who lost in 2013 to President Uhuru Kenyatta. He says the polls will not be free and fair with the current election commission in office and wants at least half the board to be replaced.
Kenyan paper The Star took aim at the election board with a cartoon that showed them holding up scores for performance, like judges in a sporting competition, as police laid into the protester.
Powerful illustrations by @ndula_victor, @gathara & @BwanaMdogo1 on the need for reforms in Kenya. #BackToAgendaFour pic.twitter.com/fcirmpZhmL
The US embassy in Nairobi and rights group Amnesty International also condemned the attacks, saying the Kenyan constitution protected the right to free speech and peaceful protest.
“The brutal beatings by police yesterday amount to arbitrary and abusive use of force, which is illegal under Kenyan, regional and international law,” said Muthoni Wanyeki, Amnesty International’s regional director for East Africa.