Base policing on Kenyan Constitution, Amnesty Kenya Executive urges

 

The Constitution should remain the only basis for policing in Kenya, Houghton Irũngũ, the Executive Director of Amnesty International Kenya has urged.

Irũngũ made the remarks in a studio interview with KTN News on Wednesday morning.

“Let us hope that the Katiba will be used rather than the feather,” he said.

“The key thing is to chart a way in which both the police are empowered to take decisive action, to arrest. What we don’t want to see is what the Bondeni OCS in Nakuru who was captured on a video that went viral, where he was actually telling the public to take the law into their own hands and encouraging police officers essentially to execute suspects rather than to take them through the process that is under our laws,” Irũngũ told the panel.

The Amnesty International Kenya Executive also pointed out the need for the Inspector General of Police Japhet Koome to crack down on such reckless comments by senior police officers encouraging the criminalization of police work.

Irũngũ said such acts would only push Kenya backwards to become a country of where more violence becomes the basis of the criminal justice system rather than the Constitution.

His remarks come as debate rages across Kenya on the need for concise police action to bring an end to the increase in crime in the country.

Kenyans have been shocked by multiple reports of alleged muggings, stabbings, especially in the capital, Nairobi.

In an address on Monday, Koome assured of tough police response to the crimes, pointing out that immediate action would be taken to restore security in the city and across Kenya.