President Uhuru Kenyatta. [Photo/the-star.co.ke]
A message from President Uhuru Kenyatta expressing his gratitude to the police for their firmness has been made public.It was read by the director of police operations Benson Kibui.From all indications, the message is not going down well with many people, especially the human rights activists who have interpreted it as presidential cover for police brutality.Human rights groups have made public an array of surveys chronicling the brutality and atrocities perpetrated by police officers.Shocking about the president's message is that it comes in the wake of accusations directed at the police for unprofessional acts and gross human rights violations.In the build-up to the October 26 rerun, Amnesty International released a report that was very critical of the Kenya police, accusing it of brutalising and killing protestors in slum areas.The police have always strongly denied these accusations of wrongdoing, insisting that they have always acted in a professional manner. The actions of rogue individuals in the force, it has argued, cannot be used to condemn the whole force.