Friday, September 13, 2013

Do not expand police powers, urges rights group

      

Kenyan police officers. Human Rights Watch has urged Kenyan law makers to reject proposed amendments to the National Police Service Act of 2011 and the National Police Service Commission Act of 2011. The rights group fears that this move could increase worrying extrajudicial killings, and endanger the long-awaited police reforms. PHOTO|FILE. NATION

In Summary

• The proposed amendments could exacerbate worrying patterns of police abuse and extrajudicial killings, and jeopardize the long-awaited police reforms, Human Rights Watch said.
• The amendments seek to expand the legal use of firearms to include protecting property and preventing someone charged with a serious crime from escaping lawful custody.
• The Kenyan police have regularly been implicated in extrajudicial killings and other serious abuses prior to the 2007-2008 post-election violence.
• The amendments also enhance the influence of the president and cabinet secretary for Interior and National Coordination over the police and the commission.

Kenyan lawmakers have been urged to reject amendments to police laws that would expand the legal use of firearms and weaken civilian oversight over police abuses, Human Rights Watch said Thursday.

Parliament is expected to vote on the amendments before the end of September 2013.

The proposed amendments could exacerbate worrying patterns of police abuse and extrajudicial killings, and jeopardize the long-awaited police reforms, Human Rights Watch said.

“Kenyan lawmakers shouldn’t be expanding police powers when there are such serious concerns about police abuses,” said Daniel Bekele, Africa director at Human Rights Watch.

“Instead, parliament should focus on improving accountability for extrajudicial killings by police and on other, much-needed reforms.”

In May Attorney General Githu Muigai proposed amendments to the National Police Service Act of 2011 and the National Police Service Commission Act of 2011.

Among other changes, the amendments seek to expand the legal use of firearms to include protecting property and preventing someone charged with a serious crime from escaping lawful custody.

The current laws already allow for use of lethal force by the police when their lives or those of other persons are in danger, but only when all other means fail.

Further amendments go against international standards, says the rights group.

International law is directly incorporated into Kenyan law under the constitution.

ABIDE BY UN PRINCIPLES

Human Rights Watch has urged Kenyan security forces to abide by the United Nations Basic Principles on the Use of Force and Firearms by Law Enforcement Officials.

The principles call upon law enforcement officials to as much as possible apply nonviolent means before resorting to force and firearms, and to use intentional lethal force only when strictly unavoidable to protect life, the rights body added.

In early August a member of parliament allegedly assaulted a female police officer in Nakuru, while villagers in Nyanza killed a military officer after they mistook him for a robber.

Government authorities have publicly encouraged police officers to take advantage of provisions in the law allowing use of firearms to respond to these attacks.

On August 18, Inspector General of Police, David Kimaiyo, told his officers to “understand” their powers to use firearms, citing the assaults on the police officers.

“I hereby direct police officers that when their lives are threatened they must clearly understand their powers to use firearms,” the inspector general said in a statement to the media.

On July 19, the cabinet secretary for Interior and National Coordination, Joseph Ole Lenku, openly directed the Inspector General and other police commanders to use force.

He added there would be dire consequences if the warring Turkana and the Samburu communities in the Rift Valley failed to voluntarily return 50 guns that police lost in a botched operation in December 2012.

EXTRAJUDICIAL KILLINGS

The Kenyan police have regularly been implicated in extrajudicial killings and other serious abuses prior to the 2007-2008 post-election violence.

The Kenya National Commission on Human Rights (KNCHR) and the UN special rapporteur on extrajudicial executions had documented police involvement in the targeted killing of up to 500 members of the Mungiki, a proscribed criminal gang.

In a preliminary survey on extrajudicial killings released in mid-August, the human rights commission and the Independent Medico-Legal Unit (IMLU) found that, between May and August, police had shot dead 120 people in separate incidents under unclear circumstances.

Police have not submitted reports to the Independent Police Oversight Authority to facilitate investigation in any of these cases.

The Police Act provides that any killing by police must be reported to the oversight authority, a civilian body created in 2012 for investigation of incidents of police abuse.

Police have also been accused of using excessive force against protesters even when it may have been unwarranted.

On August 7, security officers in Moyale allegedly shot a human rights activist, Hassan Guyo at a roadblock.

Guyo, 40, had travelled to Moyale from neighbouring Wajir to assess the human rights situation following clashes between police and villagers protesting the firing of a chief.

He had earlier complained to friends that a senior police officer in Moyale had threatened him with death.

REMOVE OVERSIGHT POWERS

The proposed new police amendments remove some oversight powers from the National Police Service Commission and return them to the Inspector General of police.

It is feared that this would lead to abuse of power by the police.

Some of the functions of the commission to be affected by these amendments include recruitment, vetting, and discipline of police officers.

The amendments also enhance the influence of the president and cabinet secretary for Interior and National Coordination over the police and the commission.

They reinstate the president’s powers to hire and fire the Inspector General of police.

Those changes would remove the Inspector General’s security of tenure and effectively undermine the person’s operational independence, which is provided for in Kenya’s 2010 constitution, said Human Rights Watch.

Proposals to make the Inspector General the chair of the National Police Service Commission as opposed to an independently hired civilian as provided for in the original act are inimical to the spirit of police reforms, the rights body added.

“Government authorities should be concentrating on accelerating reforms that are essential to making the police accountable.

They should not be passing laws that would give them greater power to commit abuses,” Bekele said.

“Authorities should bolster accountability in the police force by proceeding quickly with other reforms on the agenda, such as vetting and restructuring the force,” he added.