Rights activists decry extrajudicial killings

A consortium of Kenyan human rights organisations stated on Wednesday, 3 October, that Kenyan police had carried out some 1,300 extrajudicial executions over the last five years. The umbrella National Human Rights Network said thousands of other individuals had been seriously injured by police, and that the level of police brutality in Kenya had reached "worrying proportions", the 'People' newspaper reported on Thursday.

The statement follows the deaths on Sunday, 30 September, of six people who were being held in custody at Thika police station, 50 km northeast of the Kenyan capital, Nairobi. The police have said the six men were beaten to death during a fight with other prisoners in a crowded cell, and three men appeared in court on Wednesday charged with the six murders. In the same court, six policemen - among them the Thika police station officer in charge, Inspector Joseph Njoroge Ndugu - were charged with neglect of duty through failing to ensure the prisoners' welfare, which had allegedly contributed to the six deaths.

The incident has raised concerns over police treatment of prisoners and poor conditions in Kenyan prisons. MPs on Wednesday called for an inquest into the deaths, the 'Daily Nation' reported. The MP for Imenti Central, Gitobu Imanyara, urged Internal Security Minister Marsden Madoka to close Thika police station, saying it had become "a death trap" for Kenyans. Police had yet to explain the death of a prisoner at the same station last month, the 'Daily Nation' reported. The Law Society of Kenya has called for a commission of inquiry into the protection of people in police custody, saying it was the responsibility of the police to guarantee their safety and wellbeing. The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights recently heard serious claims of abuses by policemen and police reservists, including physical abuse of people in detention.