Police investigation violates National Accord

Police investigation violates National Accord
Published on June 4, 2008, 12:00 am
By Raila Odinga
Few items of political discourse have been as misunderstood, and as deliberately distorted, as the issue of thousands of protesting youth who have been incarcerated for five months now in Rift Valley, Nairobi and western Kenya.
A number of leaders of various hues are demanding that there be no impunity with regard to the terrible violence that swept our nation after the disputed presidential election results were announced at the end of December. Astoundingly, they are referring only to youth whose only ‘crime’ was staging lawful protests in their anger over the Electoral Commission’s criminal conduct of the elections.
These leaders have never once spoken of there being no impunity for the security forces, which were responsible for more than half of the killings.
Equally astounding, the only police officer charged is the one in Kisumu, whose wanton killing of two youths was captured on television cameras.
Police culpability is clearly indicated since most killings resulted from gunshot wounds, as pointed out by the highly respected Independent Medico-Legal Unit, a non-governmental organisation involved in human rights issues. And let us also remember that the police actions, initiated at the highest level of its command, were done at the behest of the State, which then was under the control of a contending party in the election.
The vast majority of youth who are in custody killed or raped no one. They were defending democracy and electoral justice in the only manner available to them — demonstrations, which enjoy the protection of our Constitution. The protests turned bloody primarily because of the grossly disproportionate and indiscriminate use of force by security agents, who had been given orders to shoot to kill.
Yes, there were killings, rapes and violent robbery by enraged citizens. Such individuals must face the law, but surely a police force responsible for many of the deaths cannot be trusted to be the investigator and prosecutor for these crimes. The police will cover up their own killings by laying the blame on the innocent.
It is because of the serious doubts over the impartiality of the police and our judicial system that the National Accord and Reconciliation Agreement established a commission, now headed by Justice Philip Waki, to look into the entire spectrum of violence that swept the nation. Trying to rush through police investigation violates the Accord and also gives them the opportunity to fix the evidence. The police themselves will be in the dock in the Waki Commission.
There are clear instances where youths are facing trumped up charges of robbery with violence, which is a non-bailable offence, in order to punish them. And in instances where bail is applicable, it is set at such an exorbitant amount that the youths are unable to go home to their families.
Additionally, thousands of the arrested have still not been charged, which is a violation of the rule of law, since charges need to be brought within two weeks of arrest at most.
These demonstrations took place nationwide, but the police used maximum force in the Rift Valley, western Kenya and selected parts of Nairobi to portray the violence as coming from specific ethnic groups. Indeed, this use of brutal force was pre-planned by stationing large police contingents in these areas, as it was known that protests would erupt when the fraudulent election results were announced.
The police officers who killed innocent Kenyans in Western, Nyanza, Rift Valley and the Coast looked the other way as Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) supporters were hacked to death or burnt in their homes in Naivasha, Nakuru, Nairobi and Central Province.
We in ODM have demanded the truth in the election dispute and justice for all who were killed, attacked or affected in whatever manner by neighbours or the police, which acted as an armed wing of Party of National Unity during the violence.
The only logical way to proceed is to let the Waki Commission on post-election violence proceed with its work without interference by the police. Otherwise, this Commission is entirely redundant, and its work will be only for the history books.
National reconciliation, as well as the headway we urgently need to make in our common coalition programmes, cannot take place when there is so much legitimate anger over these wrongly incarcerated youths.
The writer is Prime Minister of Kenya