Kenyan forces have been in the limelight for several wrong reasons. Those trained to defend citizens have turned into professional violators of human rights.
It is no longer reasonable to report crime because justice is sensitive to one’s economic muscle. The forces protect the haves while the have-nots are mistreated.
What was meant to be a national resource has been turned into a tool for conquest among the political class and a means of suppressing the poor.
Instead of dealing with the Al Shabab, thieves of national resources, assassinators, bandits, land grabbers, hate speech tunnels and societal misfits; innocent citizens are ever harassed.
Who is responsible and when will police-citizen relationship be smooth like in Tanzania?
Are our officers trained to rape our grandmothers, mothers, wives, sisters and daughters to get the information they need? Can a gun be hidden in someone’s private parts?
Is burning down businesses and residential places delivering justice to the people who gave you an opportunity to man them?
How will you feel if your child lives with the trauma of seeing her/his mother raped?
Are all other alternatives of grilling citizens ever exhausted so that extreme force is the only alternative?
If force has to be justified then officers who break the law must be subjected to the same.
Shooting an innocent Kenyan is fashionable and self-defense while mishandling a police officer is a ticket to your permanent resting place on earth.
They are send to save Kenyans but resort to drinking and looting, they are called to protect citizens when attacked but they are ever late, they are fond of partial investigations, they are partisan, they collect bribes on our roads in broad daylight while some are hired to kill.
The ills associated with them are endless. What makes them special? If the masters of these forces do not reform, their juniors will continue being enemies of the citizens.
They cease to be our friends and relatives once they are trained and instructed by their commanders to mishandle us.