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Kenyan police escalate brutality in broad daylight
Photo courtesy Daily Nation - Policeman pumps bullets
in the head of one of the suspects in morning traffic
along Langata road in Nairobi
by Joseph Ernest January 20, 2011
Newscast Media --The Daily Nation which is Kenya's largest newspaper published shocking images Thursday of what appear to be undercover police shooting three compliant suspects at point-blank range in the middle of the day on a busy Nairobi highway.
The photos printed by the Daily Nation were taken on a cell phone by a passing motorist. The photos show two men lying face down and an undercover police officer pointing a gun near their bodies. A later photo shows two men with multiple bullet wounds to the head, who appear to be dead. A third killing also apparently took place.
The paper also reported that after the killings, the police turned their guns on journalists at the scene and threatened to shoot them. A 2009 UN report found extra-judicial killings by Kenyan police are systematic and widespread. Kenyan officials blamed incidents of extra-judicial killings on rogue police officers. The apparent killing has been condemned by human rights campaign group Amnesty, which said such cases were all too common in the country.
"Eyewitness reports of this incident depict a disturbing image of police officers who are accustomed to acting with complete impunity. These appear to be blatant and deliberate killings that amount to extra judicial executions," said Justus Nyang'aya.
In 2009 a UN investigation concluded that in Kenya, executions by the police were systematic and widespread.
After the country's disputed election three years ago, more than 1,200 people were killed, several hundred of them shot by the police. The head of the force at the time, Major General Hussein Ali, is one of six men accused by the International Criminal Court of bearing the most responsibility for the post-election violence.
Of course there are a few Africans who argue that the International Criminal Court (ICC) should not be involved in African affairs and should let African natives resolve injustices committed against them using their own judicial system. That kind of reasoning is faulty because in Africa nepotism is widespread by those in power, and bribery of local officials is rampant.
How can citizens get justice by trying tyrannical leaders locally if a regime decides to buy off officials and judges? How can true justice prevail if witnesses are paid "hush money" or given huge chunks of land, not to testify?
How can the local police be trusted to enforce necessary laws to rectify misconduct, if they themselves are viewed as rogue cops and would not hesitate to commit police brutality as shown in the photo and story above?
Could it be that those advocating the non-involvement of the ICC are bought off or double-agents themselves?
Carl Bernstein a Pulitzer Prize winner wrote about how intelligence agencies use media practitioners to accomplish their goals in the local media and foreign press. In his 25,000 word story published in Rolling Stone on October 20, 1977, Bernstein talks about how local and foreign journalists can be used by intelligence agencies. In this particular incident, let us focus on the foreign press. It is obvious after Kenyan police pumped live bullets into citizens who were demonstrating as they protested the results of last Kenyan elections, they were sending a message that they were unaccountable and above the law. Had the ICC not stepped in, these rogue cops and politicians would continue to terrorize their very own citizens, like what happened just recently on January 19, 2011 in the streets of Nairobi.
How, you may ask, do journalists play a role in trying to protect rogue leaders and officials from being held accountable by powers stronger and more effective than those within the country itself? Bernstein explains how it works in an interview with an intelligence agent.
"After a foreigner is recruited, a case officer often has to stay in the background," explained a CIA official. "So you use a journalist to carry messages to and from both parties."
"For instance, a reporter in Vienna would say to our man, 'I met an interesting second secretary at the Czech Embassy.' We'd say, 'Can you get to know him? And after you get to know him, can you assess him? And then, can you put him in touch with us—would you mind us using your apartment?"
"One of the things we always had going for us in terms of enticing reporters, was that we could make them look better with their home offices. A foreign correspondent with ties to the Company stood a much better chance than his competitors of getting the good stories," said the intelligence agent.
The ICC serves as a "deterrent" to bring an end to repugnant behavior displayed by ruthless politicians or government officials, who breach their duty to serve those who put them in office. When people in power know that they will be held accountable for their actions, they regulate their conduct. Without a body like the ICC, nobody in a police state is safe. The greatest absurdity a media practitioner can exhibit is defending the indefensible. Foreign journalists working in countries where crimes against humanity are committed should be very cautious in taking sides with those who commit such crimes, because they (journalists) end up losing credibility due to either their inability to discern truth, or their blatant denial of injustices that are self evident.
In a letter written to Bishop Mandell Crighton in 1887, the British historian Lord Acton noted: "Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely."
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