What was the role of the Kenyan government and police in the violence that unfolded after Kenya’s rigged December 2007 general election? This report outlines police use of excessive force against protestors, ethnic-based killings and reprisals by supporters aligned to both the ruling and opposition parties. It finds that the violence resulted from decades of political manipulation of ethnic tensions, and of impunity intertwined with longstanding grievances over land, corruption and inequality. Thorough reforms of the institutions designed to safeguard human rights are needed, including the judiciary, the police, land tribunals, and the electoral commission. Those who contributed to the violence, including police officers, must be prosecuted.
This summary focuses on findings relating to the role of the government and the police. In 2002 the Kibaki government promised governance reform, including police reform, yet corruption became further entrenched. After the rigging of the 2007 presidential election, the government banned public gatherings and the police killed and wounded hundreds of peaceful demonstrators with live ammunition.
Kenya’s constitution places overwhelming power in the hands of the central government and, in particular, the president. This creates the risk of a winner-takes-all calculus when it comes to elections. Further, the political manipulation of ethnicity is almost a tradition in Kenyan politics, along with impunity for those implicated in fomenting political violence.
- Several politicians and local leaders were implicated in inciting pre-election and post-election violence, but no politician has been held accountable.
- The election campaign itself was virulently divisive, with politicians on both sides characterising their opponents in derogatory terms linked to their ethnicity.
- Arguably, the government’s ban on public gatherings precipitated violent confrontations between police and opposition supporters, and attempts to enforce the illegal ban led to many unnecessary deaths.
- The Kikuyu militias who struck in late January were organised, paid, and directed by local leaders, businessmen, and, in some cases, PNU (the ruling Party of National Unity) councillors and mobilisers. Circumstantial evidence suggests that senior members of the government may have been aware of what was going on.
As the country slid into inter-ethnic violence, the police appear largely to have had little will or capacity to prevent violence, and in many cases perpetrated it. Although the scale of the demands on the police means that failure to make arrests was possibly understandable, the limited extent and slow pace of investigations and prosecutions raise questions, not just of lack of police capacity or professionalism, but also of politicisation.
- Police action included the shooting (with live rounds) of unarmed protesters and bystanders, including women and children, without any initial attempt to use non-lethal force, and in situations where there was no apparent imminent threat to life or property.
- Some policemen spoke of an unofficial ‘shoot-to-kill’ policy. In Kisumu, police drove into the slums and opened fire directly and without warning on any group of people they deemed suspicious. The pattern of the gunshots indicates that the police were shooting to kill males but that the female and child victims were caught by stray bullets.
- Police officers were quick to resort to lethal force in opposition areas when lives were not obviously at risk, yet when faced with pro-government mobs killing and burning in Naivasha and Nakuru, made little attempt to intervene.
- Political bias is also suggested by the fact that, while some Kalenjin leaders have been arrested in relation to the violence, no Kikuyu leaders have been apprehended for their part in the reprisals in Nakuru and Naivasha. (In Navisha, police officers failed to request assistance from the army or the 1,000 armed prison guards stationed in the town.)
- The Kenyan National Commission on Human Rights alleges that Kenya’s police summarily executed at least five hundred suspected Mungiki gang members.
Kenya’s police are stretched beyond their capacity and will need considerable assistance, possibly from international agencies. It is important to ensure that:
- Organisation, incitement, or participation in political and ethnic violence and excessive use of force by members of state security forces is impartially and rigorously investigated, and that perpetrators are brought promptly to justice.
- The police build on recent efforts to encourage victims of sexual violence to report crimes, take all reports of sexual violence seriously, and investigate all allegations.
- The police and judicial institutions are willing and equipped to meet the task of providing for justice.
- Non-humanitarian aid is made conditional on human rights benchmarks, including accountability of individuals responsible for current and previous episodes of political violence and excessive use of force by police.
